^''' 


DUKE 

UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY 

Treasure  %oom 

SCATALOGIC   RITES 

OP  ALL   NATIONS. 


A  Dissertation  upon  the  Employment  of  Excrementitious  Remedial 

Agents  in  Religion,  Therapeutics,  Divination,  Witchcraft, 

Love-Philters,  etc.,  in  all  Parts  of  the  Globe, 

Based  upon  Original  Notes  and  Personal  Observation,  and  upon 
Compilation  from  over  One  Thousand  Authorities. 


BY 

CAPTAIN   JOHN    G.   BOURKE, 

Third  Cavalry,  U.  S.  A., 

Fellow  of  the  Ameeican  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  ;  Member  op  the  Antheo- 

POLOGICAL    SoCIETT,    OF    WASHINGTON,  D.O.  J    MEMBER    OP    THE   "  CONGRES    DES    AMfeRICAKISTES ;  " 

Associate  Member  of  the  Victoru  Institute  and  Philosophical  SociETr  of  Great  Britain  ; 
Member  op  the  Society  of  American  Folk -Lore; 

AniHOE  of  the  "Snake  Dance  of  the  Moqctis  of  Arizona;"  "An  Apache  Campaign;"  "Notes 
on  the  Theogont  and  Cosmogont  of  the  Mojaves  " ;  "The  Gentile  Organization  op  the 
Apaches;''  "Mackenzie's  Last  Fight  with  the  Cheyennes,"  and  other  works. 


NOT  FOR  GENERAL  PERUSAL. 


WASHINGTON,  D.C. 

W.    H.    LOWDERMILK    &    CO. 

1891. 


CopyrigTit,  1891, 
By  John  G.  Bourke. 


SSnibersttg  iSrrss: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambhidge,  U.S.A. 


lY.K, 


PEEFACE. 


T^HE  subject  of  Scatalogic  or  Stercoraceous  Rites  and 
Practices,  however  repellent  it  may  be  under  some  of  its 
aspects,  is  none  the  less  deserving  of  the  profoundest  considera- 
tion, —  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  from  the  former  universal 
dissemination  of  such  aberrations  of  the  intellect,  as  well  as  of  the 
religious  impulses  of  the  human  race,  and  their  present  curtail- 
ment or  restriction,  the  progress  of  humanity  upward  and  onward 
may  best  be  measured. 

Philosophical  and  erudite  thinkers  of  past  ages  have  published 
tomes  of  greater  or  less  magnitude  upon  this  subject ;  among 
these  authors,  it  may  be  sufficient,  at  this  moment,  to  mention 
Schurig,  Etmuller,  Flemming,  Paullini,  Beckherius,  Eosinus  Len- 
tilius,  and  Levinus  Lemnius.  The  historian  Buckle  regarded  the 
subject  as  one  well  worthy  of  examination  and  study,  as  will 
appear  in  the  text  from  the  memoranda  found  in  his  scrap-books 
after  his  death. 

The  philosopher  Boyle  is  credited  with  the  paternity  of  a 
work  which  appeared  over  the  signature  "  B,"  bearing  upon  the 
same  topic. 

The  anonymous  author  or  authors  of  the  very  learned  pamphlet 
"  Bibliotheca  Scatalogica,"  for  the  perusal  of  which  I  am  indebted 
to  the  courtesy  of  Surgeon  John  S.  Billings,  collected  a  mass  of 
most  valuable  bibliographical  references. 

Quite  recently  there  have  appeared  in  the  "  ^litterlungen 
Gesselsch.,"  Wien,  1888,  two  pages  of  the  work  of  Dr.  M.  Hofler, 
"  Volksmedicin  und  Aberglaube  in  Oberbayern  Gegenwart  und 
Vergangenheit,"  describing  some  of  the  excrementitious  remedies 
still  existing  in  the  folk-medicine  of  Bavaria. 


IV  PREFACE   TO   THE  PRESENT   EDITION. 

But  while  treatises  upon  this  subject  are  by  no  means  rare, 
they  are  not  accessible,  except  to  those  scholars  who  are  within 
reach  of  the  largest  libraries  ;  and  while  all,  or  nearly  all,  indicate 
the  association  of  these  practices  with  sorcery  and  witchcraft,  as 
well  as  with  folk-medicine,  no  writer  has  hitherto  ventured  to 
suggest  the  distinctively  religious  derivation  to  be  ascribed  to 
them. 

From  the  moment  when  the  disgusting  "  Urine  Dance  of  the 
Zunis  "  was  performed  in  the  author's  presence  down  to  the  hour 
of  concluding  this  work,  a  careful  examination  has  been  made  of 
more  than  one  thousand  treatises  of  various  kinds  and  all  sizes, 
from  the  musty  pig-skin  covered  black  letter  of  tlie  fifteenth  cen^ 
tury  to  the  more  modest  but  not  less  valuable  pamphlet  of  later 
years.  These  treatises  have  covered  the  field  of  primitive  reli- 
gion, medicine,  and  magic,  and  have  likewise  included  a  most 
liberal  portion  of  the  best  books  of  travel  and  observation  among 
primitive  peoples  in  every  part  of  the  world ;  not  only  English 
authorities,  but  also  the  writings  of  the  best  French,  Spanish, 
German,  Latin,  Greek,  Arabic,  and  Celtic  authors  are  here  pre- 
sented, together  with  an  examination  of  what  has  come  down  to 
us  from  leaders  of  Eastern  religious  thought  and  from  the  monastic 
"  leeches  "  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. 

A  great  number  of  examples  of  the  use  of  stercoraceous  reme- 
dies has  been  inserted  under  the  head  of  "  Therapeutics,"  for  two 
excellent  reasons :  first,  to  show  that  the  use  of  such  remedies 
was  most  widely  disseminated ;  and  secondly,  to  demonstrate  that 
this  use  had  been  handed  down  from  century  to  century. 

Had  any  other  course  been  followed,  objection  might  have  been 
raised  that  unusual  remedies,  or  those  of  eccentric  practitioners 
only,  had  been  sought  for  and  quoted  for  the  purpose  of  proving 
that  Filth  Pharmacy  was  a  thoroughly  consistent  and  fully  de- 
veloped school  in  the  science  of  therapeutics,  from  the  most  prim- 
itive times  down  to  and  even  overlapping  our  own  days. 

A  perusal  of  this  volume  cannot  fail  to  convince  the  most 
critical  that  it  has  been  written  in  a  spirit  of  fairness  as  much  as 
is  possible  to  human  nature,  and  without  prepossession  or  preju- 
dice in  any  direction. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  PRESENT  EDITION".  V 

The  fact  that  so  many  citations  have  been  incorporated  in  this 
compilation  without  comment,  may  be  claimed  as  an  additional 
proof  of  the  unbiassed  character  of  the  work. 

No  collection  of  facts  constitutes  a  science.  All  that  can  prop- 
erly be  done  with  facts  not  positively  known  to  be  related,  is  to 
place  them,  as  here  placed,  in  juxtaposition,  leaving  the  reader  to 
frame  his  own  conclusions ;  by  no  other  method  can  an  author 
escape  the  imputation  of  distorting  or  perverting  evidence. 

The  great  number  of  letters  received  from  distinguished 
scholars  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  from  Edinburgh  to  New  South 
Wales,  attests  the  interest  felt  in  this  treatise,  and  at  the  same 
time  places  the  author  under  obligations  which  words  cannot 
express.     Special  acknowledgments  are  due  to  :  — 


Professor  TV.  Robertson  Smith,  Edi- 
tor of  the  Eneyclopsedia  Britannica. 

Major-Geneval  J.  G.  Forlong,  author 
of  "  The  Rivers  of  Life,"  Edinburgh. 

Havelock  Ellis,  Esq.,  Editor  of  the 
Contemporary  Science  Series. 

Prof.  Tyrrell  S.  Leith,  of  Bombay 
(since  dead). 

Frank  Rede  Eowke,  Esq.,  South 
Kensington  Museum,  London. 

James  G.  Frazer,  Esq.,  M.  A.,  author 
of  "The  Golden  Bough,"  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge. 

Dr.  GusTAV  Jaeger,  of  Stuttgart. 

Dr.  J.  W.  KiNGSLET,  of  Cambridge. 

Prof.  E.  B.  Tylor,  Oxford. 

Prof.  E.  N.  HoRSFORD,  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. 

Prof.  F.  "W.  Putnam,  Peabody  Archee- 
ological  Museum,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Surgeon  Washington  M-atthews, 
U.  S.  Army. 

Surgeon  B.  J.  D.  Irwin,  U.  S.  Army. 

F.  B.  Ktngdon,  Esq.,  Secretary  Royal 

.  Society,  Sydney,  New  South  Wales. 

J.  F.  Mann,  Esq.,  Sydney,  New  South 
Wales. 


John  Frazer,  Esq.,  LL.D.,  Sydney, 
New  South  Wales. 

Capt.  Henri  Jouan,  French  Navy. 

Dr.  Bernard,  Cannes,  France. 

Dr.  Robert  Fletcher. 

Dr.  Franz  Boas,  Clark  University, 
Worcester,  Mass. 

Dr.  Henry  Stricker,  Frankfort, 
Germany. 

Chief  Engineer  Melville,  U.  S. 
Navy. 

Prof.  Otis  T.  Mason,  National  Mu- 
seum, Washington,  D.  C. 

William  H.  Gilder,  the  Arctic  ex- 
plorer and  writer. 

Dr.  Albert  S.  Gatschet,  Bureau  of 
Ethnology,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Rev.  Henry  Clay  Trumbull,  Editor 
of  "The  Sunday  School  Times,"  of 
Philadelphia,  Penn. 

Hon.  Lambert  Tree,  ex-minister  to 
Russia. 

Andrew  Lang. 

J.  S.  HiTTEL,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

M.  M.  H.  Gaidoz,  editor  of  "  Melu- 
sine,"  Paris. 

Dr.  S.  B.  Evans,  Ottumwa,  la. 


VI  PREFACE  TO  THE  PRESENT  EDITION. 


Rev.  J.  Owen  Dorsey,  Bureau  of 
Etbnology,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Mr.  W.  W.  RocKHiLL,  the  distin- 
guished Oriental  scholar  and  ex- 
plorer. 

Hon.  H.  T.  Allen,  Secretary  Corean 
Legation. 


Mrs.  F.  D.  Bergen,  and  many  other 
correspondents. 

Last,  but  not  least,  to  Dr.  J.  Hamp- 
den PoRTEK,  of  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington, whose  friendly  offices 
amounted  practically  to  a  collabo- 
ration. 


All  papers  of  this  series  which  relate  to  the  manners  and  usages 
of  the  Indians  of  the  southwestern  portion  of  our  territory,  espe- 
cially those  concerning  the  urine  dances,  phallic  dances,  snake 
dances  of  the  Zuiiis,  Mokis,  and  other  Pueblos  ;  the  Navajoes  of 
New  Mexico ;  the  sun  dance  of  the  Sioux,  etc.,  have  been  com- 
piled from  memoranda  gathered  under  the  direction  of  Lieutenant- 
Genei-al  P.  H.  Sheridan,  in  1881  and  1882.  Those  referring  to 
Apaches,  etc.,  of  Arizona ;  to  Northern  jNIexico  ;  to  pueblo  ruins 
and  cliff  and  cave  dwellings  ;  to  Sioux,  Cheyennes,  Crows,  Ara- 
pahoes.  Pawnees,  Shoshones,  Utes,  and  other  tribes,  extending 
back  to  1869,  were  mainly  obtained  while  the  author  was  serving 
as  aide-de-camp  upon  the  staff  of  Brigadier-General  George 
Crook,  during  the  campaigns  conducted  by  that  officer  against 
hostile  tribes  west  of  the  Missouri,  from  the  British  line  down 
into  Mexico,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  under  General  Crook's 
direction,  and  with  his  encouragement  and  assistance. 

The  translations  from  German  texts  were  made  by  Messrs. 
Smith,  Pratz,  and  Bunnemeyer,  while  for  the  analysis  of  the  pills 
made  out  of  the  ordure  of  the  Grand  Lama  of  Thibet,  the  author 
desires  to  express  his  acknowledgments  to  Dr.  W.  M.  Mew. 

J.  G.  B. 


CONTENTS. 


Chaftkb  Page 

I.      PnELIMrNAKY  REMARKS 1 

11.    The  Urine  Dance  of  the  Zunis 4 

III.  The  Teast  of  Fools  in  Europe 11 

Comparison  between  tlie  Feast  of  Fools  and  the  Urine  Dance.  — 
The  Feast  of  Fools  traced  back  to  most  ancient  times.  —  Dis- 
appearance of  the  Feast  of  Fools.  —  The  "  Szombatiaks  "  of 
Transylvania. 

IV.  The  Commemorative  Character  of  Religious  Festivals  .     .     24 

The  generally  sacred  character  of  dancing.  —  Fray  Diego 
Duran's  account  of  the  Mexican  festivals.  —  The  Urine  Dance 
of  the  Zunis  may  conserve  a  tradition  of  the  time  when  vile 
aliment  was  in  use. 

V.    Human  Excrement  used  in  Food  by  the  Insane  and  Others    29 

Yl.    The  Employment  of  Excrement  in  Food  by  Savage  Tribes     33 

VII.    Urine  in  Human  Food 38 

Chinook  olives.  —  Urine  in  bread-making.  —  Human  ordure 
eaten  by  East  Indian  fanatics. 

VIII.    The  Ordure  of  the  Grand  Lama  of  Thibet 42 

Hue  and  Dubois  compared. 

IX.     The  Stercoranistes 54 

Un  Dalai-Lamas  Irlandais. 

X.     The  Bacchic  Orgies  of  the  Greeks 62 

Bacchic  orgies  in  North  America. — The  sacrifice  of  the  dog  a 
substitution  for  human  sacrifice. 

XI.    Poisonous  Mushrooms  used  in  Ur-Orgies 65 

The  mushroom  drink  of  the  Borgie  well. 

XII.    The  Mushroom  in  Connection  with  the  Fairies    ....     85 


VI 11 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  Paqs 

XIII.  A   Use   of   Poisonous   Fungi   quite   probably   existed 

AMONG    THE    MEXICANS 89 

Mushrooms  and  toadstools  worshipped  by  American 
Indians.  — A  former  use  of  fungus  indicated  in  the  myths 
of  Ceylon,  and  in  the  laws  of  the  Brahmins. 

XIV.  TuE  Onion  adored  by  the  Egyptians 94 

XV.     Sacred  Intoxication  and  Phallism 97 

XVI.  An  Inquiry  into  the  Druidical  Use  of  the  Mistletoe  99 
Former  employment  of  an  infusion  or  decoction  of  mistle- 
toe. —  The  mistletoe  alleged  to  have  been  held  sacred  by 
the  Mound-builders.  —  The  mistletoe  festival  of  the  Mex- 
icans. —  Vestiges  of  Druidical  rites  at  the  present  day.  — 
The  Linguistics  of  the  mistletoe. 

XVII.     Cow  Dung  and  Cow  Urine  in  Religion 112 

Cow  dung  also  used  by  the  Israelites. 
XVIII.    Ordure  alleged  to  have   been  used  in  Food  by  the 

Israelites 119 

The  sacred  cow's  excreta  a  substitute  for  human  sacrifice.  — 
Human  ordure  and  urine  still  used  in  India. 
XIX.    Excrement  Gods  of  Romans  and  Egyptians      ....    127 
The  Assyrian  Venus  had  offerings  of  dung  placed  upon  her 
altars.  —  The  Mexican  goddess  Sucliiquccal  eats  ordure. 
—  Israelitish  dung-gods. 

XX.     Latrines 134 

Posture  in  urination. 

XXI.    An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  of  the  Rites  connected 

with  the  Worship  of  Bel-Phegor 154 

XXII.    Obscene  Tenures 165 

XXIII.  Tolls  of  Flatulence  exacted  of  Prostitutes  in  France  168 

The  sacred  character  of  bridge-building. 

XXIV.  Obscene  Survivals  in  the  Games  of  English  Rustics  .     173 
XXV.    Urine  and  Ordure  as  Signs  of  Mourning 176 

XXVI.    Urine  and  Ordure  in  Industries 177 

Tanning.  —  Bleaching.  —  Dyeing.  —  Plaster.  —  As  a  cure 
for  tobacco.  —  To  restore  tlie  odor  of  musk  and  the  color 
of  coral.  —  Cheese  manufacture.  —  Oj)ium  adulteration.  — 
Egg-hatching.  —  Taxes  on  urine.  —  Chrysocollon.  —  For 
removing  ink  stains.  —  As  an  article  of  jewelry.  —  Tattoo- 
ing.—  Agriculture.  —  Urine  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
salt.  —  Preparation  of  sal  ammoniac,  phosphorus,  solution 
of  indigo.  —  Manure  employed  as  fuel.  —  Smudges.  — 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


Chapteb  Paqb 

Human  and  animal  excreta  to  promote  the  growth  of  the 
hair  and  eradicate  dandruff'.  —  As  a  means  of  washing 
vessels.  —  Filthy  habits  in  cooking. 

XXVII.    Urine  in  Cekemonial  Aulutions 201 

XXVIII.     Urine  in  Ceremonial  Observances 206 

Stercoraceous  chair  of  the  Popes. 

XXIX.    Ordure  in  Smoking .    214 

XXX.    Courtship  and  Marriage 21G 

Ordure  in  love-philters.  — Anti-philters. 

XXXI.    Siberian  Hospitality 228 

XXXII.    Parturition 233 

Weaning. 

XXXIII.  Initiation  op  Warriors.  —  Confirmation 237 

Pearful  rite  of  the  Hottentots.  —  War-customs.  —  Arms 
and  armor. 

XXXIV.  Hunting  and  Fishing 244 

XXXV.    Divination.  —  Omens.  —  Dreams 246 

XXXVI.    Ordeals  and  Punishments,  Terrestrial  and  Supernal    249 

XXXVII.    Insults 256 

XXXVIII.    Mortuary  Ceremonies 261 

XXXIX.    Myths 266 

XL.    Urinoscopy,  or  Diagnosis  by  Urine 272 

On  the  influence  of  the  emotions  upon  the  egestse. 

XLL     Ordure  and  Urine  in  Medicine 277 

Extracts  from  the  writings  of  Dioscorides.  —  The  views  of 
Galen.  —  Sextus  Placitus.  —  "  Saxon  Leechdoms."  — 
Avicenna.  —  Miscellaneous.  —  Human  Ordure. —  Schu- 
rig's  ideas  regarding  the  use  in  medicine  of  the  egestae 
of  animals.  —  Ordure  and  urine  in  folk-medicine.  — 
Occult  influences  ascribed  to  ordure  and  urine.  —  Other 
excrementitious  remedies.  —  Hair.  —  Superstitions  con- 
nected with  the  human  saliva.  —  Cerumen  or  ear-wax. — 
Woman's  milk.  —  Human  sweat.  —  Superstitions  con- 
nected with  the  catamenial  fluid.  —  After-birth  and 
lochise.  —  Human  semen.  —  Human  blood.  —  Human 
skin,  flesh,  and  tallow.  —  Human  skull.  —  Brain.  — 
Moss  growing  on  human  skull. — Moss  growing  on 
statue.  —  Lice.  —  Wool.  —  Bones  and  teeth.  —  Mar- 
row.—  Human  teeth.  —  Tartar  impurities  from  the 
teeth.  —  Renal  and  biliary  calculi.  —  Human  bile. — 
Bezoar  stones.  —  Lyncurius.  —  Cosmetics. 


CONTENTS. 


CnAPTEB  Paoii 

XLII.    Amulets  and  Talismans 370 

XLIll.    Witchcraft. —  Sorceky.  —  Charms.  — Spells. — Incanta- 
tions.—  Magic 373 

XLIV.    A  Few  Remarks  upon  Temple  or  Sacred  Prostitution, 

AND  UPON  THE  HoRNS  OP  CuCKOLDS 40.5 

XLV.    Cures  by  Transplantation 411 

XLVI.     The  Use  of  the  Lingam  in  India 42S 

XLVII.     Phallic  Superstitions  in  France  and  elsewhere     .    .    431 

XL VIII.    Burlesque  Survivals 432 

The  use  of  bladders  ia  religious  ceremonies. 

XLIX.    The  Worship  of  Cocks  and  Hens 440 

The  Spanish- Americaa  sport  of  "  Correr  el  Gallo,"  and  the 
English  pastime  of  "  Throwing  at  '  Shrove  Cocks.'  "  — 
The  scarabseus  of  Egypt. 

L.    The  Persistence  of  Filth  Remedies 456 

Epilepsy. 
LI.     An   Explanation   of  the   Reason  why   Human   Ordure 
AND  Human  Urine  were    employed    in    Medicine 

and  Religious  Ceremonies 459 

LII.     Easter  Eggs 461 

LIII.     The  Use  of  Bladders  in  making  Excrement  Sausages     464 
LIV.     Conclusion 467 

BIBLIOGRAPHY * 469 

INDEX 485 


SCATALOGIC    RITES 

OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


SCATALOGIC  RITES  OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


I. 

PEELIMINARY   REMARKS. 

"  The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man." 

"  The  study  of  man  is  the  study  of  man's  religion."  —  Max  MiJLLER. 

••  Few  who  will  give  their  minds  to  master  the  general  principles  of  savage 
religion  will  ever  again  think  it  ridiculous.  .  .  .  Far  from  its  beliefs  and  practices 
being  a  rubbish  heap  of  miscellaneous  folly,  they  are  consistent  and  logical  in  so 
high  a  degree  as  to  begin,  as  soon  as  even  roughly  classified,  to  display  the  princi- 
ples of  their  formation  and  development ;  and  these  principles  prove  to  be  essen- 
tially rational,  though  working  in  a  mental  condition  of  intense  and  inveterate 
ignorance."  —  Primitive  Culture,  E.  B.  Tylor,  New  York,  1874,  vol.  i.  p.  21. 

T^HE  object  of  the  present  monograph  is  to  arrange  in  a  form  for 
-^  easy  reference  such  allusions  as  have  come  under  the  author's 
notice  bearing  upon  the  use  of  human  or  animal  ordure  or  urine  or 
articles  apparently  intended  as  substitutes  for  them,  whether  in  rites 
of  a  clearly  religious  or  "medicine"  type,  or  in  those  which,  while  not 
pronouncedly  such,  have  about  them  suggestions  that  they  may  be  sur- 
vivals of  former  urine  dances  or  ur-orgies  among  tribes  and  peoples  from 
whose  later  mode  of  life  and  thought  they  have  been  eliminated. 

The  difficulties  surrounding  the  elucidation  of  this  topic  will  no 
doubt  occur  to  every  student  of  anthropology  or  ethnology.  The  rites 
and  practices  herein  spoken  of  are  to  be  found  only  in  communities 
isolated  from  the  world,  and  are  such  as  even  savages  would  shrink 
from  revealing  unnecessarily  to  strangers  ;  while,  too  frequently,  obser- 
vers of  intelligence  have  failed  to  improve  opportunities  for  noting  the 
existence  of  rites  of  this  nature,  or  else,  restrained  by  a  false  modesty, 
have  clothed  their  remarks  in  vague  and  indefinite  phraseology,  forget- 

1 


2  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

ting  that  as  a  physician,  to  be  skilful,  must  study  his  patients  both  in 
sickness  and  in  health,  so  the  anthropologist  must  study  man,  not 
alone  wherein  he  reflects  the  grandeur  of  his  Maker,  but  likewise  in 
his  grosser  and  more  animal  propensities. 

When  the  first  edition  of  "  Notes  and  Memoranda,"  etc.,  upon  this 
subject,  was  distributed  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  the  author  was 
prepared  to  believe  that,  to  a  large  and  constantly  increasing  circle  of 
scholars,  the  subject  would  prove  of  unusual  interest,  and  that,  to  re- 
peat the  words  of  a  gi-eat  emperor,  as  quoted  by  a  greater  philosopher, 
all  belonging  to  primitive  man  was  worthy  of  scrutiny  and  examination 
by  those  who  would  become  familiar  with  his  history  and  evolution. 

"  We  ought  to  be  able  to  say,  like  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  *  home 
sum,  humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto,'  or  translating  his  words  lite- 
rally, '  I  am  a  man  ;  nothing  pertaining  to  man  I  deem  foreign  to  my- 
self.' " —  (Max  Miiller,  " Chips  from  a  German  "Workshop."  Maximilian 
was  using  a  citation  from  Terence.) 

The  author  also  felt  that  to  such  a  circle  it  would  not  be  necessary 
for  him  to  make  an  apology  analogous  to  that  with  which  Pellegrini 
sought  to  defend  the  noble  profession  of  medicine  in  the  early  days  of 
printing.^  But  it  was  with  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  pride  that  he 
saw  his  pamphlet  honored  by  the  earnest  attention  of  men  eminent  in 
the  world  of  thought,  who  by  suggestion  and  criticism,  given  in  kind- 
ness and  received  with  gratitude,  have  contributed  to  the  amplification 
of  the  original  "  Notes  and  Memoranda  "  into  the  present  treatise. 

That  these  disgusting  rites  are  distinctively  religious  in  origin,  no 
one,  after  a  careful  perusal  of  all  that  is  to  be  presented  upon  that 
head,  will  care  to  deny  ;  and  that  their  examination  will  be  productive 
of  important  results  will  be  equally  incontrovertible  when  that  exami- 

*  John  Baptist  Pellegrini,  wlio  wrote  an  "Apologia  .  .  .  adversus  Pliilosophiae 
et  Medicinae  calumniatores,"  at  P>ononiae  (Bologna),  1082,  uses  only  this  expres- 
sion, "  Qiianivis  humanis  corporis  excrementa  conspicienda  considerandaque  esse 
praecipiat  non  tamen  jiropter  hoc  aliquid  suae  nobilitati  et  proestantiae  detrahitur," 
p.  190.  He  means  that  the  nobility  of  the  medical  profession  is  in  no  manner  im- 
paired by  the  fact  that  the  good  physician  examines  the  egestae  of  his  patient. 
"  However  disgusting  the  subject  may  appear  to  such  readers  who  do  not  consider  it 
in  the  light  of  science,  the  article  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  maxim  that,  for  a  sci- 
entific mind,  nothing  is  too  abject  or  insignificant  for  consideration  ;  and  it  also 
illustrates  the  other  principle,  that  to  the  pure  everything  is  pure.  Many  of  the 
rites  described  in  these  pages  show  how  deeply  engraved  in  the  human  mind  is  the 
tendency  of  symbolizing,  anthromorphizing,  and  deifying  abstract  ideas  and  phe- 
nomena of  nature."  —  (Extract  from  review  by  Dr.  Alfred  Gatchett,  Bureau  of  Eth- 
nology, in  "Folk-Lore  Journal,"  Boston,  Mass.) 


THE  URINE  DANCE   OF  THE  ZUSlS.  3 

nation  shall  be  conducted  on  the  broad  principle  that  the  benefit  or 
detriment  mankind  may  have  received  from  religion  in  general  or  from 
any  particular  form  of  religion,  can  be  ascertained  only  by  a  compari- 
son between  man's  actions  and  principles  of  conduct  in  the  earliest 
stages  of  culture,  and  those  observable  while  actuated  by  the  religious 
sentiment  of  the  present  day. 

Hebrews  and  Christians  will  discover  a  common  ground  of  congratu- 
lation in  the  fact  that  believers  in  their  systems  are  now  absolutely 
free  from  any  suggestion  of  this  filth  taint,  every  example  to  the  con- 
trary being  in  direct  opposition  to  the  spirit  and  practice  of  those  two 
great  bodies  to  which  the  world's  civilization  is  so  deeply  indebted. 

But  under  another  point  of  view,  the  study  of  primitive  man  is  an 
impossibility  and  an  absurdity  unless  prosecuted  as  an  investigation 
into  his  mode  of  religious  thought,  since  religion  guided  every  thought 
and  deed  of  his  daily  life.  Rink,  after  saying  that  the  "  whole  study 
of  prehistoric  man  .  .  .  which  has  hitherto  almost  exclusively  been 
founded  upon  the  study  of  the  ornaments,  weapons,  and  other  remains  of 
primitive  peoples,"  must  in  future  be  based  upon  an  inquiry  into  their 
spiritual  thought,  remarks  that  "  The  time  will  surely  come  when  any 
relic  of  spiritual  life  brouglit  down  to  us  from  prehistoric  mankind, 
which  may  still  be  found  in  the  folk-lore  of  the  more  isolated  and  prim- 
itive nations,  will  be  valued  as  highly  as  those  primitive  remains."  — 
("  Tales  and  Traditions  of  the  Eskimo,"  Rink,  Edinburgh,  1875,  page  6 
of  Preface.) 

Repugnant,  therefore,  as  the  subject  is  under  most  points  of  view, 
the  author  has  felt  constrained  to  reproduce  all  that  he  has  seen  and 
read,  hoping  that,  in  the  fuller  consideration  that  all  forms  of  primitive 
religion  are  now  receiving,  this,  the  most  brutal,  possibly,  of  all,  may 
claim  some  share  of  examination  and  discussion.  To  serve  as  a  nucleus 
for  notes  and  memoranda  since  gleaned,  the  author  has  reproduced  his 
original  monograph,  first  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Ameri- 
can Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1885,  and  read  by 
title  at  the  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  meeting,  in  the  same  year. 


SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


II. 

THE  URIXE  DANCE  OF  THE  ZUNIS. 

i^X  the  evening  of  November  17,  1881,  during  my  stay  in  the  vil- 
^-^  lage  of  Zuni,  New  Mexico,  the  Neh^ie-C^ie,  one  of  the  secret 
orders  of  the  Zunis,  sent  word  to  Mr.  Frank  H.  Gushing,^  whose  guest 
I  was,  that  they  would  do  us  the  unusual  honor  of  coming  to  our  house 
to  give  us  one  of  their  characteristic  dances,  which,  Gushing  said,  was 
unprecedented. 

The  squaws  of  the  govemoi-'s  family  put  the  long  living-room  to 
rights,  sweeping  the  floor  and  sprinkling  it  with  water  to  lay  the  dust. 
Soon  after  dark  the  dancers  entered  ;  they  were  twelve  in  number,  two 
being  boys.  The  centre  men  were  naked,  with  the  exception  of  black 
breech-clouts  of  archaic  style.  The  hair  was  worn  naturally,  with  a 
bunch  of  wild-turkey  feathers  tied  in  front,  and  one  of  com  husks  over 
each  ear.  White  bands  were  painted  across  the  face  at  eyes  and 
mouth.  Each  wore  a  collar  or  neckcloth  of  black  woollen  stuff.  Broad 
white  bands,  one  inch  wide,  were  painted  around  the  body  at  the 
ravel,  around  the  arms,  the  legs  at  mid-thighs,  and  knees.  Tortoise- 
shell  rattles  hung  from  the  right  knee.  Blue  woollen  footless  leggings 
were  worn  with  low-cut  moccasins,  and  in  the  right  hand  each  waved  a 
wand  made  of  an  ear  of  com,  trimmed  with  the  plumage  of  the  wild 
turkey  and  macaw.  The  others  were  arrayed  in  old,  cast-off  American 
Army  clothing,  and  all  wore  white  cotton  night-caps,  with  corn-husks 
twisted  into  the  hair  at  top  of  head  and  ears.  Several  wore,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  tortoise-shell  rattles,  strings  of  brass  sleigh-bells  at  knees. 
One  was  more  grotesquely  attired  than  the  rest,  in  a  long  India-rubber 
gossamer  "overall,"  and  with  a  pair  of  goggles,  painted  white,  over  his 
eyes.  His  general  "  get-up  "  was  a  spirited  take-off  upon  a  Mexican 
priest.     Another  was  a  very  good  counterfeit  of  a  young  woman. 

1  Mr.  Cushing's  reputation  as  an  ethnologist  is  now  so  firmly  established  in  two 
continents  that  no  further  reference  to  his  self-sacrificing  and  invaluable  labors  in 
the  cause  of  science  seems  to  be  necessar}'. 


THE  URINE  DANCE   OF  THE  ZUSlS.  5 

To  the  accompaniment  of  an  oblong  drum  and  of  the  rattles  and  bells 
spoken  of  they  shuffled  into  the  long  room,  crammed  with  spectators  of 
both  sexes  and  of  all  sizes  and  ages.  Their  song  was  apparently  a 
ludicrous  reference  to  everything  and  everybody  in  sight,  Cushing, 
Mindeleff,  and  myself  receiving  special  attention,  to  the  uncontrolled 
merriment  of  the  red-skinned  listeners.  I  had  taken  my  station  at 
one  side  of  the  room,  seated  upon  the  banquette,  and  haviiig  in  front 
of  me  a  rude  bench  or  table,  upon  which  was  a  small  coal-oil  lamp. 
I  suppose  that  in  the  halo  diffused  by  the  feeble  light,  and  in  my 
"  stained-glass  attitude,"  I  must  have  borne  some  resemblance  to  the 
pictures  of  saints  hanging  upon  the  walls  of  old  Mexican  churches  ; 
to  such  a  fancied  resemblance  I  at  least  attribute  the  performance 
which  followed. 

The  dancers  suddenly  wheeled  into  line,  threw  themselves  on  their 
knees  before  my  table,  and  with  extravagant  beatings  of  breast  began 
an  outlandish  but  faithful  mockery  of  a  Mexican  Catholic  congrega- 
tion at  vespers.  One  bawled  out  a  parody  upon  the  pater-noster,  an- 
other mumbled  along  in  the  manner  of  an  old  man  reciting  the  rosary, 
while  the  fellow  with  the  India-rubber  coat  jumped  up  and  began  a 
passionate  exhortation  or  sermon,  which  for  mimetic  fidelity  was 
incomparable.  This  kept  the  audience  laughing  with  sore  sides 
for  some  moments,  until,  at  a  signal  from  the  leader,  the  dancers 
suddenly  countermarched  out  of  the  room  in  single  file  as  they  had 
entered. 

An  interlude  followed  of  ten  minutes,  during  which  the  dusty  floor 
was  sprinkled  by  men  who  spat  water  forcibly  from  their  mouths. 
The  Nehue-Cue  re-entered ;  this  time  two  of  their  number  were  stark 
naked.  Their  singing  was  very  peculiar,  and  sounded  like  a  chorus  of 
chimney-sweeps,  and  their  dance  became  a  stiff-legged  jump,  with  heels 
kept  twelve  inches  apart.  After  they  had  ambled  around  the  room 
two  or  three  times,  Cushing  announced  in  the  Zuiii  language  that  a 
"  feast  "  was  ready  for  them,  at  which  they  loudly  roared  their  appro- 
bation, and  advanced  to  strike  hands  with  the  munificent  "  America- 
nos," addressing  us  in  a  funny  gibberish  of  broken  Spanish,  English, 
and  Zufii.  They  then  squatted  upon  the  ground  and  consumed  with 
zest  large  "  ollas  "  full  of  tea,  and  dishes  of  hard  tack  and  sugar.  As 
they  were  about  finishing  this  a  squaw  entered,  carrying  an  "  olla  "  of 
urine,  of  which  the  filthy  brutes  drank  heartily. 

I  refused  to  believe  the  evidence  of  my  senses,  and  asked  Cushing  if 
that  were  really  human  urine.     "  Why,  certainly,"  replied  he,  "  and 


6  SCATALOGIC  EITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

here  comes  more  of  it."  This  time  it  was  a  large  tin  pailful,  not  less 
than  two  gallons.  I  was  standing  by  the  squaw  as  she  oflFered  this 
strange  and  abominable  refreshment.  She  made  a  motion  with  her 
hand  to  indicate  to  me  that  it  was  urine,  and  one  of  the  old  men  re- 
peated the  Spanish  word  mear  (to  urinate),  while  my  sense  of  smell 
demonstrated  the  truth  of  their  statements. 

The  dancers  swallowed  great  draughts,  smacked  their  lips,  and,  amid 
the  roaring  merriment  of  the  spectators,  remarked  that  it  was  very, 
very  good.  The  clowns  were  now  upon  their  mettle,  each  trying  to 
surpass  his  neighbors  in  feats  of  nastiness.  One  swallowed  a  fragment 
of  corn-husk,  saying  he  thought  it  very  good  and  better  than  bread  ; 
his  vis-h-vis  attempted  to  chew  and  gulp  down  a  piece  of  filthy  rag. 
Another  expressed  regret  that  the  dance  had  not  been  held  out  of 
doors,  in  one  of  the  plazas  ;  there  they  could  show  what  they  could  do. 
There  they  always  made  it  a  point  of  honor  to  eat  the  excrement  of 
men  and  dogs. 

For  my  own  part,  I  felt  satisfied  with  the  omission,  particularly  as 
the  room,  stufied  with  one  hundred  Zunis,  had  become  so  foul  and 
filthy  as  to  be  almost  unbearable.  The  dance,  as  good  luck  would 
have  it,  did  not  last  many  minutes,  and  we  soon  had  a  chance  to  run 
into  the  refreshing  night  air. 

To  this  outline  description  of  a  disgusting  rite,  I  have  little  to  add. 
The  Zuiiis,  in  explanation,  stated  that  the  Nehue-Cue  were  a  Medicine 
Order,  which  held  these  dances  from  time  to  time  to  inure  the  stomachs 
of  members  to  any  kind  of  food,  no  matter  how  revolting.  This  state- 
ment may  seem  plausible  enough  when  we  understand  that  religion 
and  medicine,  among  primitive  races,  are  almost  always  one  and  the 
same  thing,  or  at  least  so  closely  intertwined,  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
difficulty  to  decide  where  one  begins  and  the  other  ends.* 

Religion,  in  its  dramatic  ceremonial,  preserves,  to  some  extent,  the 
history  of  the  particular  race  in  which  it  dwells.  Among  nations  of 
high  development,  miracles,  moralities,  and  passion  plays  have  taught, 
down  to  our  own  day,  in  object  lessons,  the  sacred  history  in  which  the 

1  There  are  three  secret  orders  in  Zuni,  — the  "Zuni,"  the  "Knife,"  and  the 
"  Nehue-Cue."  The  object  of  the  latter  is  said  to  be  to  teach  fortitude  to  its  mem- 
bers, as  well  as  to  teach  them  the  therapeutics  of  stomachic  disorders,  etc.  In  their 
dances  they  resort  to  the  horrible  practice  of  drinking  human  urine,  eating  human 
excrement,  animal  excrement,  and  other  nastiness  which  can  only  be  believed  by 
seeing  it."  —  (Extract  from  the  Personal  Notes  of  Captain  Bourke,  November  16, 
1881.) 


THE  URINE   DANCE  OF  THE  ZUSlS.  7 

spectators  believed.  Some  analogous  purpose  may  have  been  held  iu 
view  by  the  first  organizers  of  the  urine  dance.  Iu  their  early  history, 
the  Zunis  and  other  Pueblos  suffered  from  constant  warfare  with  sav- 
age antagonists  and  with  each  other.  From  the  position  of  their  vil- 
lages, long  sieges  must  of  necessity  have  been  sustained,  in  which  sieges 
famine  and  disease,  no  doubt,  were  the  allies  counted  upon  by  the  in- 
vesting forces.  We  may  have  in  this  abominable  dance  a  tradition  of 
the  extremity  to  which  the  Zunis  of  the  long  ago  were  reduced  at  some 
unknown  period.  A  similar  catastrophe  in  the  history  of  the  Jews  is 
intimated  in  2  Kings  xviii.  27  ;  and  again  in  Isaiah  xxxvi.  12  :  "  But 
Kab-shakeh  said  imto  them  :  hath  my  master  sent  me  to  thy  master, 
and  to  thee  to  speak  these  words  1  hath  he  not  sent  me  to  the  men 
which  sit  on  the  wall,  that  they  may  eat  their  oion  dung  and  drink  their 
own  piss  with  you  ?  "  In  the  course  of  my  studies  I  came  across  a  ref- 
erence to  a  very  similar  dance,  occurring  among  one  of  the  fanatical 
sects  of  the  Arabian  Bedouins,  but  the  journal  in  which  it  was  recorded, 
the  "  London  Lancet,"  I  think,  was  unfortunately  mislaid,^ 

As  illustrative  of  the  tenacity  with  which  such  vile  ceremonial,  once 
adopted  by  a  sect,  will  adhere  to  it  and  become  ingrafted  upon  its  life, 
long  after  the  motives  which  have  suggested  or  commended  it  have 
vanished  in  oblivion,  let  me  quote  a  few  lines  from  Max  Miiller'a 
"  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,"  *'  Essay  upon  the  Parsees,"  pp. 
163,  164,  Scribner's  edition,  1869  :  "  The  nirang  is  the  urine  of  a  cow, 
ox,  or  she-goat,  and  the  rubbing  of  it  over  the  face  and  hands  is  the 
second  thing  a  Parsee  does  after  getting  out  of  bed.  Either  before 
applying  the  nirang  to  the  face  and  hands,  or  while  it  remains  on  the 
hands  after  being  applied,  he  should  not  touch  anything  directly  with 
his  hands ;  but,  in  order  to  wash  out  the  nirang^  he  either  asks  some- 
body else  to  pour  water  on  his  hands,  or  resorts  to  the  device  of  taking 
hold  of  the  pot  through  the  intervention  of  a  piece  of  cloth,  such  as  a 
handkerchief  or  his  sudra,  —  that  is,  his  blouse.  He  first  pours  water 
on  his  hand,  then  takes  the  pot  in  that  hand  and  washes  his  other 
hand,  face,  and  feet."  —  (Quoting  from  Dadabhai-Xadrosi's  "  Descrip- 
tion of  the  Parsees.") 

^  "  There  must,  I  think,  be  some  mistake  about  the  fanatical  dance  of  Arabian 
Bedouins  ;  probably  one  of  the  wild  practices  of  Moslem  Dervishes  was  described  in 
the  source  you  have  mislaid.  These  practices  are  Turkish  or  Persian,  not  Arabian, 
in  origin.  The  Rifar  Dervishes  eat  live  serpents  and  scorpions,  and,  I  dare  say, 
perform  still  more  disgusting  acts."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Professor  W.  Robertsoa 
Smith,  Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  England.) 


8  SCATALOGIO  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Continuing,  Max  Mliller  says  :  "  Strange  as  this  process  of  purifica- 
tion may  appear,  it  becomes  perfectly  disgusting  when  we  are  told  that 
women,  after  childbirth,  have  not  only  to  undergo  this  sacred  ablution, 
but  actually  to  drink  a  little  of  the  nirang,  and  that  the  same  rite  is 
imposed  on  children  at  the  time  of  their  investiture  with  the  Sudra 
and  Koshti,  —  the  badges  of  the  Zoroastrian  faith." 

Before  proceeding  further  it  may  be  advisable  to  clinch  the  fact  that 
the  Urine  Dance  of  the  Zuiiis  was  not  a  sporadic  instance,  peculiar  to 
that  pueblo,  or  to  a  particular  portion  of  that  pueblo  ;  it  was  a  tribal 
rite,  recognized  and  commended  by  the  whole  community,  and  entering 
into  the  ritual  of  all  the  pueblos  of  the  Southwest. 

Upon  this  point  a  few  words  from  the  author's  personal  journal  of 
Nov.  24,  1881,  may  well  be  introduced  to  prove  its  existence  among 
the  Moquis,  —  the  informant,  Nana-je,  being  a  young  Moqui  of  the 
strictest  integrity  and  veracity  :  "  In  the  circle  I  noticed  Naua-je  and 
the  young  Nehue-cue  boy  who  was  with  us  a  few  nights  since.  During 
a  pause  in  the  conversation  I  asked  the  young  Nehue  if  he  had  been 
drinking  any  urine  lately.  This  occasioned  some  laughter  among  the 
Indians ;  but  to  my  surprise  Nana-je  spoke  up  and  said  :  *  I  am  a  Ne- 
hue also.  The  ^'ehue  of  Zuni  are  nothing  to  the  same  order  among  the 
Moquis.  There  the  Nehue  not  only  drink  urine,  as  you  saw  done  the 
other  night,  but  also  eat  human  and  animal  excrement.  They  eat  it 
hei-e  too  ;  but  we  eat  all  that  is  set  before  us.  We  have  a  medicine 
which  makes  us  drunk  like  whiskey ;  we  drink  a  lot  of  that  before  we 
commence ;  it  makes  us  drunk.  We  don't  care  what  happens ;  and 
nothing  of  that  kind  that  we  eat  or  drink  can  ever  do  us  any  harm.* 
The  Nehue-cue  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  pueblos  on  the  Rio  Grande 
and  close  to  it ;  only  there  they  don't  do  things  openly." 

In  addition  to  the  above,  we  have  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Thomas  V. 
Keam,  who  has  lived  for  many  years  among  the  Moquis,  and  who  con- 
firms from  personal  observation  all  that  has  been  here  said. 

The  extracts  from  personal  correspondence  with  Professor  Bandelier 
.are  of  special  value,  that  gentleman  having  devoted  years  of  pains- 
taking investigation  to  the  history  of  the  Pueblos,  and  acquired  a  most 
intimate  knowledge  of  them,  based  upon  constant  personal  observation 
and  scholarship  of  the  highest  order. 

In  a  personal  letter,  dated  Santa  Fe,  N.  M.,  June  7,  1888,  he  tells, 
among  much  other  most  interesting  information,  that  he  saw  at  the 
Pueblo  of  Cochiti,  on  Nov.  10,  1880,  "the  Koshare  eating  their  own 
excrement." 


THE  URINE  DANCE   OF  THE  ZUfJiS.  9 

The  following  description  of  the  "  Club-house  "  of  the  Nehue-cue 
may  be  of  interest :  *'  It  was  twenty-one  jjaces  long,  nine  paces  wide, 
with  a  banquette  running  round  on  three  sides  ;  in  front  of  the  altar 
were  sacred  bowls  of  earthenware,  with  paintings  of  tadpoles  to  typify 
water  of  summer,  frogs  for  perennial  water,  and  the  sea-serpent  for 
ocean  water,  (riicy  describe  the  sea-serpent  {vibora  del  mar)  as  very 
large,  with  feathers  (spray  1)  on  its  head,  eating  people  who  went  into 
the  water,  and  when  cut  up  with  big  knives  yielding  a  great  deal  of 
oil.)  In  the  first  ot  the  sacred  dishes  was  a  conch-shell  from  the  sea, 
wands  made  of  ears  of  corn,  with  hearts  of  chalchihuitl,  and  exterior 
ornamentation  of  the  plumage  of  the  paiTot  and  turkey.  Bowls  of 
sacred  meal  {kunque)  were  on  the  floor ;  this  sacred  meal,  to  be  found 
in  niches  in  the  house  of  every  Zuni,  or  for  that  matter  of  almost  every 
pueblo  throughout  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  is  generally  made  of  a 
mixture  of  blue  corn-meal,  shells,  and  chalchihuitl ;  but  for  more 
solemn  occasions,  as  the  old  Indian  Pedro  Pino  assured  me,  sea-sand 
is  added.  Around  the  room  at  intervals  were  pictographs  of  birds,  — 
ducks  and  others,  —  nine  in  number  on  one  side,  and  nine  of  clown- 
gods  on  the  other.  These  pictures  were  fairly  well  delineated  in  black 
and  in  red  and  yellow  ochre.  The  god  of  "  The  Winged  Knife  "  was 
represented  back  of  the  altar.  In  this  room  were  also  kept  several  of 
the  painted  oblong  wooden  drums  seen  in  every  sacred  dance."  —  (Ex- 
tract from  personal  notes  of  Captain  Bourke,  Nov.  17,  1881.) 

"  Have  you  ever,  while  in  New  Mexico,  witnessed  the  dance  of  that 
cluster  or  order  called  the  "  Ko-sha-re  "  among  the  Queres,  "  Ko-sa-re  " 
among  the  Tehuas,  and  "Shu-re"  among  the  Tiguasl  I  have  wit- 
nessed it  several  times ;  and  these  gentlemen,  many  of  whom  belong  to 
the  circle  of  my  warm  personal  friends,  display  a  peculiar  appetite 
for  what  the  human  body  commonly  not  only  rejects,  but  also  ejects. 
I  am  sorry  that  I  did  not  know  of  your  work  any  sooner,  as  else  I  could 
have  given  you  very  full  descriptions  of  these  dances.  The  cluster  in 
question  have  a  very  peculiar  task,  inasmuch  as  the  ripening  of  all 
kinds  of  fruits  is  at  their  charge,  even  the  fruit  in  the  mother's  womb, 
and  their  rites  are  therefore  of  sickening  obscenity.  The  swallowing 
of  excrements  is  but  a  mild  performance  in  comparison  with  what  I 
have  been  obliged  to  see  and  witness."  —  (Letter  from  Professor  Band e- 
lier,  dated  at  Santa  Fe,  N.  M.,  April  25,  1888.) 

Major  Ferry,  whom  the  author  met  in  the  office  of  General  Robert 
McFeely,  Acting  Secretary  of  War,  Oct.  5,  1888,  stated  that  he  was 
the  son  of  the  first  Protestant  missionary  to  build  a  church  at  Macki- 


10  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

naw,  and  that  the  Indians  of  the  Ojibway  tribe  who  lived  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  that  post  indulged  from  time  to  time  in  orgies  in  which  the 
drinking  of  urine  was  a  feature. 

Mr.  Daniel  W.  Lord,  a  gentleman  who  was  for  a  time  associated  with 
Mr.  Frank  H.  Gushing  in  his  investigations  among  the  Zunis  of  New 
Mexico,  makes  the  following  statement :  — 

"  In  June,  1888,  I  was  a  spectator  of  an  orgy  at  the  Zuni  pueblo  in 
New  Mexico.  The  ceremonial  dance  of  that  afternoon  had  been  finished 
in  the  small  plaza  generally  used  for  dances  in  the  northwestern  |)art 
of  the  pueblo  when  this  supplementary  rite  took  place.  One  of  tlie 
Indians  brought  into  the  plaza  the  excrement  to  be  employed,  and  it 
was  passed  from  hand  to  hand  and  eaten.  Those  taking  part  in  the 
ceremony  were  few  in  number,  certainly  not  more  than  eight  or  ten. 
They  drank  urine  from  a  large  shallow  bowl,  and  meanwhile  kept  up  a 
running  fire  of  comments  and  exclamations  among  themselves,  as  if 
urging  one  another  to  drink  heartily,  which  indeed  they  did.  At 
last  one  of  those  taking  part  was  made  sick,  and  vomited  after  the 
ceremony  was  over.  The  inhabitants  of  the  pueblo  upon  the  house- 
tops overlooking  the  plaza  were  interested  spectators  of  the  scene. 
Some  of  the  sallies  of  the  actors  were  received  with  laughter,  and 
others  with  signs  of  disgust  and  repugnance,  but  not  of  disapprobation. 
The  ceremony  was  not  repeated,  to  my  knowledge,  during  my  stay  at 
the  pueblo,  which  continued  till  July,  1889."  —  (Personal  letter  to 
Captain  Bourke,  dated  Washington,  D.  C,  May  26,  1890.) 


THE  FEAST  OF  FOOLS  IN  EUROPE.  H 


III. 

THE  FEAST   OF  FOOLS   IN  EUROPE. 

/^ILOSELY  corresponding  to  this  ui'ine  dance  of  the  Zuiiis  was  the 
^-^  Feast  of  Fools  in  Continental  Europe,  the  description  of  which 
here  given  is  quoted  from  Dulaure  :  — 

"La  grand'messe  commen9ait  alors;  tous  les  ecclesiastiques  y  assis- 
taient,  le  visage  barbouille  de  noir,  ou  couvert  d'un  masque  hideux  ou 
ridicule.  Pendant  la  celebration,  les  uns,  vetus  en  baladins  ou  en  femmes, 
dansaient  au  milieu  du  choeur  et  y  chantaient  des  chansons  boufFones 
ou  obscenes.  Les  autres  venaient  manger  sur  I'autel  des  saucisses  et 
des  boudins,  jouer  aux  cartes  ou  aux  dez,  devant  le  pretre  celebrant, 
I'encensaient  avec  un  encensoir,  ou  brulaient  de  vieilles  savates,  et  lui 
en  faisaient  respirer  la  fumee. 

"  Apres  la  messe,  nouveaux  actes  d'extravagance  et  d'impiete.  Les 
pretres,  confondus  avec  les  habitans  des  deux  sexes,  couraient,  dan- 
saient dans  I'eglise,  s'excitaient  a  toutes  les  folies,  a  toutes  les  actions 
licencieuses  que  leur  inspirait  une  imagination  effrenee.  Plus  de  honte, 
plus  de  pudeur  ;  aucune  digue  n'arretait  le  debordement  de  la  folie  et 
des  passions.  .  .  . 

"  Au  milieu  du  tumulte,  des  blasphemes  et  des  chants  dissolus,  on 
voyait  les  uns  se  depouiller  entierement  de  leurs  habits,  d'autres  se 
livrer  aux  actes  du  plus  honteux  libertinage. 

"...  lies  acteurs,  montes  sur  des  tombereaux  pleins  d'ordures, 
s'amusaient  k  en  jeter  k  la  populace  qui  les  entouraient.  .  .  .  Ces 
scenes  etaient  toujours  accompagnees  de  chansons  ordurieres  et  impies." 
—  (Dulaure,  "Des  Divinites  Generatrices,"  chap.  xv.  p.  315  et  seq., 
Paris,  1825.) 

COMPARISON    BETWEEN    THE    FEAST    OP    FOOLS    AND    THE    URINE    DANCE. 

In  the  above  description  may  be  seen  that  the  principal  actors  (tak- 
ing possession  of  the  church  during  high  mass)  had  their  faces  daubed 


12  SCATALOGIC    KITES    OF  ALL   NATIONS, 

aud  painted,  or  masked  in  a  harlequin  manner ;  that  they  were  dressed 
as  clowns  or  as  women  ;  that  they  ate  upon  the  altar  itself  sausages 
and  blood-puddings.  Now  the  word  "  blood-pudding  "  in  French  is 
boudin  ;  hut  boudin  also  meant  "excrement."  ^  Add  to  this  the  fea- 
ture that  these  clowns,  after  leaving  the  church,  took  their  stand  in 
dung-carts  {tombereaux),  and  threw  ordure  upon  the  by-standers  ;  and 
finally  that  some  of  these  actors  appeared  perfectly  naked  ("  on  voyait 
les  uns  se  depouiller  entierement  de  leurs  habits  "),  aud  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  there  is  certainly  a  wonderful  concatenation  of  resemblances 
between  these  filthy  and  inexplicable  rites  on  different  sides  of  a  great 
ocean. 

THE    FEAST    OF    FOOLS    TRACED    BACK    TO    MOST    ANCIENT   TIMES. 

Dulaure  makes  no  attempt  to  trace  the  origin  of  these  ceremonies  in 
France ;  he  contents  himself  with  saying,  "  Ces  ceremonies  .  .  .  ont 
subsiste  pendant  douze  ou  quinze  siecles,"  or,  in  other  words,  that 
they  were  of  Pagan  origin.  In  twelve  or  fifteen  hundred  years  the 
rite  might  have  been  well  sublimed  from  the  eating  of  pure  excrement, 
as  among  the  Zunis,  to  the  consumption  of  the  boudin,  the  excrement 
symbol.**  Conceding  for  the  moment  that  this  suspicion  is  correct,  we 
have  a  proof  of  the  antiquity  of  the  urine  dance  among  the  Zunis.  So 
great  is  the  resemblance  between  the  Zuiii  I'ite  and  that  just  described 
by  Dulaure  that  we  should  have  reason  for  believing  that  the  new  coun- 
try boiTowed  from  the  old  some  of  the  features  transmitted  to  the 
present  day  ;  and  were  there  not  evidence  of  a  wider  distribution  of  this 
observance,  it  might  be  assumed  that  the  Catholic  missionaries  (who 
worked  among  the  Zunis  from  1580,  or  thereabout,  and  excepting  dur- 
ing intervals  of  revolt  remained  on  duty  in  Zufii  down  to  the  period  of 
American  occupation)  found  the  obscene  and  disgusting  orgy  in  full 
vigor,  and  realizing  the  danger,  by  unwise  precipitancy,  of  destroying 
all  hopes  of  winning  over  this  people,  shrewdly  concluded  to  tacitly  ac- 
cept the  religious  abnormality  and  to  engraft  upon  it  the  plant  flourish- 
ing so  bravely  in  the  vicinity  of  their  European  homes. 

*  See  in  Dictionary  of  French  and  English  Language,  by  Ferdinand  E.  A.  Gasc, 
London,  Bell  and  Daldy,  York  Street,  Covent  Garden,  1873. 

Littre,  whose  work  appeared  in  1863,  gives  as  one  of  bis  definitions,  "anything 
that  is  shaped  like  a  sausage." 

Bescherelle,  Spiers  and  Surenne,  and  Boyer,  do  not  give  Case's  definition. 

'  Aud  very  probably  a  phallic  symbol  also. 


THE  FEAST   OF  FOOLS  IN  EUROPE.  13 


DISAPPEARANCE   OF   THE   FEAST   OF   FOOLS. 

In  France  the  Feast  of  Fools  disappeared  only  with  the  French 
Eevoliition  ;  in  other  parts  of  Continental  Europe  it  began  to  wane 
about  the  time  of  the  Eeformation.  In  England,  "  the  abbot  of  un- 
reason," whose  pranks  are  outlined  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  his  novel 
"  The  Abbot,"  the  miracle  plays  which  had  once  served  a  good  pur- 
pose in  teaching  Scriptural  lessons  to  an  illiterate  peasantry,  and  the 
"moralities  "  of  tlie  same  general  purport,  faded  away  under  the  stern 
antagonism  of  the  Puritan  iconoclast.  The  Feast  of  Fools,  as  such,  was 
abolished  by  Henry  VIIL  a. D.  1541. —  (See  "The  English  Reforma- 
tion," Francis  Charles  Massiugberd,  London,  1857,  p.  125.)* 

Picart's  account  of  the  Feast  of  Fools  is  similar  to  that  given  by 
Dulaure.  He  says  that  it  took  place  in  the  church,  at  Christmas  tide, 
and  was  borrowed  from  the  Pioman  Saturnalia ;  was  never  approved 
of  by  the  Christian  church  as  a  body,  but  fought  against  from  the 
earliest  times  :  — 

"  Les  uns  etoient  masques  ou  avec  des  visages  barbouilles  qui  faisoient 
peur  ou  qui  faisoient  rire ;  les  autres  en  habits  de  femmes  ou  de  panto- 
mimes, tels  que  sont  les  ministres  du  theatre. 

"  lis  dansoient  dans  le  choeur,  en  entrant,  et  chantoient  des  chansons 
obsceues,  Les  Diacres  et  les  sou-diacres  prenoient  plaisir  ^  manger  des 
boudins  et  des  saucisses  sur  I'autel,  au  nez  du  pretre  celebrant ;  ils 
jouoient  a  des  jeux  aux  cartes  et  aux  des ;  ils  mettoient  dans  Tencensoir 
quelques  morceaux  de  vieilles  savates  pour  lui  faire  respirer  une 
mauvaise  odeur. 

"  Apres  la  messe,  chacun  couroit,  sautoit  et  dansoit  par  I'eglise  avec 
tant  d'impudence,  que  quelques  uns  n'avoient  pas  honte  de  se  porter  a 
toutes  sortes  d'indecences  et  de  se  depouillier  entierement ;  ensuite,  ils  se 
faisoient  trainer  par  les  rues  dans  des  tombereaux  pleins  d'ordures,  d'ou 
ils  prenoient  plaisir  d'en  jeter  a  la  populace  qui  s'assembloit  autour  d'eux. 

"  lis  s'arretoient  et  faisoient  de  leurs  corps  des  raouvements  et  des 
postures  lascives  qu'ils  accompagnoient  de  paroles  impudiques, 

"  Les  plus  impudiques  d'entre  les  seculiers  se  meloient  parmi  le 
cbrge,  pour  faire  aussi  quelques  personnages  de  Foux  en  habits  ecclesi- 
astiques  de  Moines  et  de  Religieuses."  —  (Picart,  "  Coutumes  et  Cere- 

*  Faber  advances  the  opinion  that  the  "  mummers  "  or  clowns  who  figured  iu 
the  pastimes  of  "the  abbot  of  unreason,"  etc.,  bear  a  strong  resemblance  to  the 
animal-headed  Egyptian  priests  in  the  sacred  dances  represented  on  the  Bembine  or 
Isiac  table.     (See  Faber's  "Pagan  Idolatry,"  London,  1816,  vol.  iu  p.  479.) 


14  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

monies  r^ligieuses  de  toutes  les  Nations  du  Monde,"  Amsterdam,  Hol- 
land, 1729,  vol.  ix.  pp.  5,  6). 

Diderot  and  d'Alembert  use  almost  the  same  terms ;  the  officiating 
clergy  were  clad  "les  uns  comme  des  bouffons,  les  autres  en  habits  de 
femmes  ou  masques  d'une  fajon  monstrueuse  ,  .  .  ils  mangeaieut  et 
jouaient  aux  des  sur  I'autel  a  cote  du  pretre  qui  celebroit  la  messe.  Ils 
mettoient  des  ordures  dans  les  encensoirs."  They  say  that  the  details 
would  not  bear  repetition.  This  feast  prevailed  generally  in  Continental 
Europe  from  Christmas  to  Epiphany,  and  in  England,  especially  in 
York.  —  (Diderot  and  D'Alembert,  Encyclopaedia,  "Fete  des  Fous," 
Geneva,  Switzerland,  1779.) 

Markham  discovers  a  resemblance  between  the  "  Monk  of  Misrule  " 
of  Christendom  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  "Gylongs  dressed  in  parti- 
colored habits  .  .  .  singing  and  dancing  before  the  Teshu  Lama  in 
Thibet."  —  (See  Markham's  "  Thibet,"  London,  1879,  page  95,  footnote. 
See  also  Bogle's  description  of  the  ceremonies  in  connection  with  the 
New  Year,  in  presence  of  the  Teshu  Lama,  in  Markham's  "  Thibet," 
p.  106.) 

The  Mandans  had  an  annual  festival  one  of  the  features  of  which 
was  "  the  expulsion  of  the  devil  ...  He  was  chased  from  the  village 
.  .  .  the  women  pelting  him  with  dirt."  —  ("The  Golden  Bough," 
Frazer,  London,  1890,  vol.  ii.  p.  184,  quoting  Catlin's  "North  Ameri- 
can Indians,"  page  166.) 

The  authors  who  have  referred  at  greater  or  less  length,  and  with 
more  or  less  preciseness,  to  the  Feast  of  Fools,  Feast  of  Asses,  and 
others  of  that  kind,  are  legion;  unfortunately,  without  an  exception, 
they  have  contented  themselves  with  a  description  of  the  obscene 
absurdities  connected  with  these  popular  religious  gatherings,  without 
attempting  an  analysis  of  the  underlying  motives  which  prompted 
them,  or  even  making  an  intelligent  effort  to  trace  their  origin.  Where 
the  last  has  been  alluded  to  at  all,  it  has  almost  invariably  been  with 
the  assertion  that  the  Feast  of  Fools  was  a  survival  from  the  Roman 
Saturnalia. 

This  can  scarcely  have  been  the  case ;  in  the  progress  of  this  work 
it  is  purposed  to  make  evident  that  the  use  of  human  and  animal  egestre 
in  religious  ceremonial  was  common  all  over  the  world,  antedating  the 
Roman  Saturnalia,  or  at  least  totally  unconnected  with  it.  The  correct 
interpretation  of  the  Feast  of  Fools  would,  therefore,  seem  to  be  that 
which  recognized  it  as  a  reversion  to  a  pre-Christian  type  of  thought 
dating  back  to  the  earliest  appearance  of  the  Aryan  race  in  Europe. 


THE   FEAST   OF  FOOLS   IN  EUROPE.  15 

The  introduction  of  the  Christian  religion  was  accompanied  by  many 
compromises ;  wherever  it  was  opposed  by  too  great  odds,  in  point  of 
numbers,  it  permitted  the  retention  of  practices  repugnant  to  its  own 
teachings ;  or,  if  the  term  "  permitted "  be  an  objectionable  one  to 
some  ears,  we  may  substitute  the  expression  "  acquiesced  in  "  for  "  per- 
mitted," and  then  follow  down  the  course  of  persistent  antagonism, 
which,  after  a  while,  modified  permanent  retention  into  a  periodical, 
perhaps  an  iri-egular,  resumption,  and  this  last  into  burlesque 
survival. 

Ducange,  in  his  "  Glossarium,"  introduces  the  Ritual  of  the  Mass  at 
the  Feast  of  the  Ass,  familiar  to  most  readers,  —  but  he  adds  nothing 
to  what  has  already  been  quoted  in  regard  to  the  Feast  of  Fools 
itself. 

This  reference  from  Ducange  will  also  be  found  in  Schaff-Herzog, 
"Religious  Encyclopsedia,"  New  York,  1882,  article  "Festival."  This 
Ritual  was  written  out  iu  1369  at  Viviers  in  France. 

Fosbroke  gives  no  information  on  the  subject  of  the  Feast  of  Fools 
not  already  incorporated  in  this  volume.  He  simply  says  :  "  In  the 
Feast  of  Fools  they  put  on  masks,  took  the  dress,  etc.,  of  women, 
danced  and  sung  in  the  choir,  ate  fat  cakes  upon  the  horn  of  the  altar, 
where  the  celebrating  priest  played  at  dice,  put  stinking  stuff  from  the 
leather  of  old  shoes  in  the  censer,  jumped  about  the  church,  with  the 
addition  of  obscene  jests,  songs,  and  unseemly  attitudes.  Another  part 
of  this  indecorous  buffoonery  was  shaving  the  precentor  of  fools  upon 
a  stage,  erected  before  the  church,  in  the  presence  of  the  people ;  and 
during  the  operation  he  amused  them  with  lewd  and  vulgar  discourses 
and  gestures.  They  also  had  carts  full  of  ordure  which  they  threw 
occasionally  upon  the  populace.  This  exhibition  was  always  in  Christ- 
mas time  or  near  it,  but  was  not  confined  to  a  particular  day."  — 
(Rev.  Thomas  Dudley  Fosbroke,  "Cyclopaedia  of  Antiquities,"  Lon- 
don, 1843,  vol.  2,  article  "Festivals."  Most  of  his  information  seems 
to  be  derived  from  Ducange.) 

"  The  Feast  of  Fools  was  celebrated  as  before  in  various  masquer- 
ades of  Women,  Lions,  Players,  etc.  They  danced  and  sung  in  the 
choir,  ate  fat  cakes  upon  the  honi  of  the  altar,  where  the  celebrating 
priest  played  at  dice,  put  stinking  stuff  from  the  leather  of  old  shoes 
into  the  censer,  ran,  jumped,  etc.,  through  the  church."^ 

1  "  However  horrible  was  this  profanation,  I  could  quote  a  passage  where  in  part 
of  a  curious  penance  actions  most  indecent  were  to  be  publicly  performed  upon  the 
altar-table  ;  and  therefore  our  ancestors  had  plainly  not  the  same  ludicrous  ideas  of 


IG  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

In  Braud's  "Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1873,  vol.  3,  pp.  497- 
505,  will  be  found  a  pretty  full  description  of  the  Lords  of  Misrule, 
but  the  only  reference  of  value  for  our  purposes  is  one  from  Polydorus 
Virgil,  who  recognized  the  derivation  of  these  Feasts  from  the  Eoman 
Saturnalia.  "  There  is  nothing,"  says  the  author  of  the  essay  to  re- 
trieve the  Ancient  Celtic,  "  that  will  bear  a  clearer  demonstration  than 
that  the  primitive  Christians,  by  way  of  conciliating  the  Pagans  to  a 
better  worship,  humored  tlieir  prejudices  by  yielding  to  a  conformity 
of  names  and  even  of  customs,  where  they  did  not  interfere  with  the 
fundamentals  of  the  Christian  doctrine.  .  .  .  Among  these,  in  imita- 
tion of  the  Roman  Saturnalia,  was  the  Festum  Fatuorum,  when  part 
of  the  jollity  of  the  season  wns  a  burlesque  election  of  a  mock-pope, 
mock-cardinals,  mock-bishops,  attended  with  a  thousand  ridiculous 
and  indecent  ceremonies,  gambols,  and  antics,  such  as  singing  and 
dancing  in  the  churches,  in  lewd  attitudes,  to  ludicrous  anthems,  all 
allusively  to  the  exploded  pretensions  of  the  Druids  whom  these  sports 
were  calculated  to  expose  to  scorn  and  derision.  This  Feast  of  Fools," 
continues  he,  "  had  its  designed  effect,  and  contributed  perhaps  more 
to  the  extermination  of  these  heathens  than  all  the  collateral  aids  of 
fire  and  sword,  neither  of  which  were  spared  in  the  persecution  of 
them."  —  (Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1872,  vol.  i.  p.  36.) 

Strutt's  "  Spoi-ts  and  Pastimes,"  edition  of  London,  1855,  article 
"Festival  of  Fools,"  in  lib.  iv.  cap.  3,  contains  nothing  not  already 
learned. 

Jacob  Grimm,  "Teutonic  Mythology"  (Stally brass),  London,  1882, 
vol.  i.  p.  92,  has  the  following  :  — 

"  The  collection  of  the  Letters  of  Boniface  has  a  passage  lamenting 
the  confusion  of  Christian  and  heathen  rites  into  which  foolish  or  reck- 
less priests  had  suffered  themselves  to  fall." 

Banier  shows  that  on  the  First  of  January  the  people  of  France  ran 
about  the  streets  of  their  towns,  disguised  as  animals,  masked  and 
playing  all  sorts  of  pranks.  This  custom  was  derived  from  the  Druids 
and  lasted  in  full  vigor  "to  the  twelfth  century  of  the  Christian  era." 
—  ("Mythology,"  Banier,  vol.  iii.  p.  247.) 

"  The  heathen  gods  even,  though  represented  as  feeble  in  compari- 
son with  the  true  God,  were  not  always  pictured  as  powerless  in  them- 
selves;  they   were   perverted   into   hostile,   malignant    powers,   into 

these  mummeries  as  ourselves.  They  were  the  mere  coarse  festivities  of  the  age 
which  delighted  in  low  liumor." — (Fosbroke,  "British  Monachism,"  2d  edition, 
London,  1817,  quoted  principally  from  Ducange.) 


THE  FEAST   OF  FOOLS  IN   EUROPE.  17 

demons,  sorcerers,  aud  giants,  who  had  to  be  put  down,  but  were 
nevertheless  credited  with  a  certain  mischievous  activity  and  influence. 
Here  and  there  a  heathen  tradition  or  a  superstitious  custom  lived  on 
by  merely  changing  the  names  and  applying  to  Christ,  Mary,  and  the 
saints  what  had  formerly  been  related  and  believed  of  idols." —  ("Teu- 
tonic Mythology,"  Jacob  Grimm  (Stallybrass),  London,  1882,  vol.  i.  In- 
troduction, page  5.)  .  .  .  "At  the  time  when  Christianity  began  to  press 
forward,  many  of  the  heathen  seem  to  have  entertained  the  notion, 
which  the  missionaries  did  all  in  their  power  to  resist,  of  combining  the 
new  doctrine  with  the  ancient  faith  and  even  of  fusing  them  into  one. 
—  (Idem,  p.  7.)  ...  Of  JN^orsemen,  as  well  as  of  Anglo-Saxons,  we  are 
told  that  some  believed  at  the  same  time  in  Christ  and  in  heathen  gods, 
or  at  least  continued  to  invoke  the  latter  in  particular  cases  in  which 
they  had  formerly  proved  helpful  to  them.  So  even  by  Christians 
much  later  the  old  deities  seem  to  have  been  named  and  their  aid  in- 
voked in  enchantments  and  spells. — (Idem,  pp.  7  and  8.)  .  .  .  The 
Teutonic  races  forsook  the  faith  of  their  fathers  very  gradually  and 
slowly  from  the  fourth  to  the  eleventh  century."  —  (Idem.  p.  8.) 

On  the  following  pages,  9,  10,  and  11,  Grimm  shows  us  how  little  is 
really  known  of  the  religions  of  ancient  Europe,  whether  of  the  Latin 
or  of  the  Teutonic  or  Celtic  races ;  he  alludes  to  "  the  gradual  trans- 
formation of  the  gods  into  devils,  of  the  wise  women  into  witches,  of 
the  worship  into  superstitious  customs.  —  (Idem.  p.  11.)  Heathen  festi- 
vals and  customs  were  transformed  into  Christian.  —  (Idem,  p.  12.)  .  .  . 
Private  sacrifices,  intended  for  gods  or  spirits,  could  not  be  eradicated 
among  the  people  for  a  long  time,  because  they  were  bound  up  with 
customs  and  festivals,  and  might  at  last  become  an  unmeaning  prac- 
tice."—(Idem,  vol.  iii.  p.  1009.) 

"It  is  a  natural  and  well-known  fact  that  the  gods  of  one  nation 
become  the  devils  of  their  conquerors  or  successors."  —  (Folk-Medicine, 
William  George  Black,  London,  1883,  p.  12.) 

"  Few  things  are  so  indestructible  as  a  superstitious  belief  once  im- 
planted in  human  credulity.  .  .  ,  The  sacred  rites  of  the  superseded 
faith  become  the  forbidden  magic  of  its  successors." — ("History  of 
the  Inquisition,"  Henry  Charles  Lea,  New  York,  1888,  vol.  iii.  p.  379.) 
"Its  gods  become  evil  spirits." — (Idem,  p.  379.)  .  .  .  The  same 
views  are  advanced  in  Madame  Blavatsky's  "  Isis  Unveiled."    - 


18  SCATALOGIC  EITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

The  "  Szombatiaks  "  of  Transylvania. 

In  further  explanation  of  the  tenacity  with  which  older  cults  survive 
long  after  the  newer  religions  seem  to  have  gained  predominance  in 
countries  and  nations,  it  is  extremely  appropriate  to  introduce  a  pas- 
sage from  an  article  in  the  "St.  James'  Gazette,"  entitled  "Crypto- 
Jews,"  reprinted  in  the  Sunday  edition  of  the  "  Sun,"  New  York,  some- 
time in  October,  1888. 

The  write!',  in  speaking  of  the  Szombatiaks  of  Transylvania,  remarks  : 
"  The  crypto-Judaism  of  the  Szombatiaks  was  suspected  for  centuries, 
but  not  until  twenty  years  ago  was  it  positively  known.  Then,  on  the 
occasion  of  a  Jewish  emancipation  act  for  Hungary,  the  sturdy  old 
peasants,  indistinguishable  in  dress,  manners,  and  language  from  the 
native  Szeklers,  sent  a  deputation  to  Pesth  to  ask  that  their  names 
might  be  erased  from  the  church  rolls.  They  explained  that  they 
were  Jews  whose  forefathers  had  settled  in  Hungary  at  the  time  of 
the  expedition  of  Titus  to  Dacia.  Though  baptized,  married,  and 
buried  as  Christians,  maintaining  Christian  pastors,  and  attending 
Christian  churches,  they  had  always  in  secret  observed  their  ancient 
religion." 

It  is  a  matter  of  surprise  to  find  so  little  on  the  subject  of  the  Feast 
of  Fools  in  Forlong's  comprehensive  work  on  Eeligion.  All  that  he 
says  is  that  "  the  Yule-tide  fetes  were  noted  for  men  disguising  them- 
selves as  women,  and  vice  versa,  showing  their  connection  with  the  old 
Sigillaria  of  the  Saturnalia,  which,  formerly  observed  on  the  14th  of 
January,  were  afterwai'ds  continued  to  three,  four,  five,  and  some  say 
seven  days,  and  by  the  common  people  even  until  Candlemas  Day. 
Both  were  prohibited  when  their  gross  immoralities  became  apparent 
to  better  educated  communities.  '  In  Paris,'  says  Trusler  in  his 
'  Chronology,'  *  the  First  of  January  was  observed  as  Mask  Day  for 
two  hundred  and  forty  years,  when  all  sorts  of  indecencies  and  obscene 
rites  occurred.'" — ("liivers  of  Life,"  Forlong,  London,  1883,  vol.  i. 
p.  434.) 

In  addition  to  the  above,  there  is  evidence  of  its  survival  among  the 
rustic  population  of  Germany.  Brand  enumerates  many  curious  practices 
of  the  carnival  just  before  Ash  Wednesday,  and  even  on  that  day,  after 
the  distribution  of  the  ashes.  Young  maidens  in  Germany  were  carried 
"  in  a  cart  or  tumbrel "  by  the  youths  of  the  village  to  the  nearest  brook 
or  pond,  and  there  thoroughly  ducked,  the  drawers  of  the  cart  throwing 
dust  and  ashes  on  all  near  them.     In  Oxfordshire  it  was  the  custom  for 


THE   FEAST   OF   FOOLS   IN   EUROPE.  19 

bands  of  boys  to  stroll  from  house  to  house  singing  and  demanding  lar- 
gess of  eggs  and  bacon,  not  receiving  which,  "they  commonly  cut  the 
latch  of  the  door  or  stop  the  key-hole  with  dirt"  ("Popular  Antiqui- 
ties," London,  1872,  vol.  i.  pp.  94  et  seq.,  article  "  Ash  Wednesday"), 
"  or  leave  some  more  nasty  token  of  displeasure  "  (idem).  This  may 
have  been  a  survival  from  the  Feast  of  Fools.  Brand  refers  to  Hos- 
pinian,  *'  De  Origine  Festorum  Christianorum,''  "  for  several  curious 
customs  and  ceremonies  observed  abroad  during  the  three  first  days  of 
the  Quinquagesima  week  "  (p.  99). 

Turning  from  the  Teutonic  race  to  the  Slav,  we  find  that  the  Feast 
of  Fools  seems  still  to  linger  among  the  Russian  peasantry.  "  At  one 
time  a  custom  prevailed  of  going  about  from  one  friend's  house  to  an- 
other masked,  and  committing  every  conceivable  prank.  Then  the 
people  feasted  on  blinnies,  —  a  pancake  similar  to  the  Jilnglish  crum- 
pet "  ("  A  Hoosier  in  Russia,"  Perry  S.  Heath,  New  York,  1888,  p.  109)  ; 
all  this  at  Christmas-tide. 

Something  very  much  like  it,  without  any  obscene  features,  was 
noted  by  Blunt  in  the  early  years  of  the  present  century.  See  his 
"Vestiges,"  p.  119. 

Hone  ("Ancient  Mysteries  Described,"  London,  1823,  pp.  148  et 
seq.)  thinks  that  a  Jewish  imitation  of  the  Greek  drama  of  the  close  of 
the  second  century,  whose  plot,  characters,  etc.,  were  taken  from  the 
Exodus,  was  the  first  miracle  play.  The  author  was  one  Ezekiel,  who 
was  believed  to  have  written  it  with  a  patriotic  purpose  after  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem.  The  early  Fathers  —  Cyril,  Tertullian,  Cy- 
prian, Basil,  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  and  Augustine  —  inveighed  against 
sacred  dramas ;  but  the  outside  pressure  was  too  great,  and  the  Church 
■was  forced  to  yield  to  popular  demand. 

As  late  as  the  fifteenth  century  Pius  11.  said  that  the  Italian  priests 
had  probably  never  read  the  New  Testament ;  and  Robert  Stephens 
made  the  same  charge  against  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  in  the  same 
age. 

The  necessity  of  dramatic  representation  wojild  therefore  soon  out- 
weigh objections  made  on  the  score  of  historical  anachronism  or 
doctrinal  inaccui*acy  in  these  miracle  plays. 

Theophylact,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  in  the  tenth  century,  is 
credited  by  the  Byzantine  historian  Cedrauus  with  the  introduction 
of  the  Feast  of  Fools  and  Feast  of  the  Ass,  "  thereby  scandalizing 
God  and  the  memory  of  his  saints,  by  admitting  into  the  sacred  service 
diabolical  dances,  exclamations  of  ribaldry,  and  ballads  borrowed  from 


20  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

the  streets  and  brothels." —  (Hone,  quoting  Wharton,  "Miscellaneous 
Writings  upon  the  Drama  and  Fiction,"  vol.  ii.  p.  369.) 

In  1590,  at  Paris,  the  mendicant  orders,  led  by  the  Bishop  of  Senlis, 
paraded  the  streets  with  tacked  up  robes,  representing  the  Church 
Militant.  These  processions  were  believed  to  be  the  legitimate  off- 
spring of  heathen  pageants,  —  that  is,  that  of  Saint  Peter  in  Vinculis 
was  believed  to  be  the  transformed  spectacle  in  honor  of  Augustus's 
victory  at  Actium,  etc. 

Beletus  describes  the  Feast  of  Fools  as  he  saw  it  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. His  account,  given  by  Hone  (p.  159),  agrees  word  for  word  with 
tliat  of  Dulaure,  excepting  that,  through  an  error  of  translation  per- 
haps, he  is  made  to  say  that  the  participants  "  ate  rich  puddings  on 
the  comers  of  the  altar;"  but  as  the  word  "pudding"  meant  even  in 
the  English  language  a  meat  pudding  or  sausage,  the  error  is  an  imma- 
terial one. 

Victor  Hugo  describes  in  brief  the  Feast  of  Fools  as  seen  at  Paris  in 
1482,  on  the  6th  of  January.  He  says  that  the  "  Fete  des  Rois  and  the 
Fete  des  Fous  were  united  in  a  double  holiday  siuce  time  immemorial." 
His  description  is  very  meagre,  but  from  it  may  be  extracted  the  in- 
formation that  in  these  feasts  of  fools  female  actresses  appeared  masked  ; 
that  the  noblest  and  greatest  personages  in  the  kingdom  of  France 
were  among  the  prominent  spectators ;  but  there  is  not  much  else. 
(See  the  opening  chapters  of  "  Notre  Dame.") 

The  Festival  of  Moharren  in  Persia  is  a  kind  of  miracle  play,  or 
Passion  play,  commemorating  the  rise  and  progress  of  Islamism. 
"  Among  these  occurrences  are  the  deaths  of  Hassein  and  Hossein,  the 
birth  of  the  prophet,  the  martyrdom  of  the  Imam  llezah,  and  the  death 
of  Fatimeh,  daughter  of  Mahomet."  —  (Benjamin,  "  Persia,"  London, 
1887.) 

This  reference  to  the  use  of  pudding  or  sausage  on  the  altar  itself  is 
the  most  persistent  feature  in  the  descriptions  of  the  whole  ceremouy. 
But  little  difficulty  will  be  experienced  in  showing  that  it  was  originally 
an  excrement  sausage,  prepared  and  offered  up,  perhaps  eaten,  for  a 
definite  purpose.  This  phase  of  the  subject  will  be  considered  farther 
on  ;  for  the  present  only  one  citation  need  be  introduced  to  show  that 
in  carnival  time  human  excrement  itself,  and  not  the  symbol,  made  its 
appearance  :  — 

"  The  following  extract  from  Barnaby  Googe's  translation  of  *  Nao- 
georgus*  will  show  the  extent  of  these  festivities  (that  is,  those  of  the 
carnival  at  Shrove  Tuesday).     After  describing  the  wanton  behavior  of 


THE  FEAST   OF   FOOLS   IN  EUROPE.  21 

men  dressed  as  women  and  of  women  arrayed  in  the  garb  of  men,  of 
clowns  dressed  as  devils,  as  animals,  or  running  about  perfectly  naked, 
the  account  goes  on  to  say  :  — 

"  *  But  others  bear  a  torde,  that  on  a  cushion  soft  they  lay  ; 
And  one  there  is  that  with  a  flap  doth  keep  the  Hies  away  : 
I  would  there  might  another  be,  an  officer  of  those, 
Whose  room  might  serve  to  take  away  the  scent  from  every  nose.'  "  — 

(Quoted  in  Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1872,  vol.  i.  p.  66, 
article  "Shrove  Tuesday.") 

The  Puritan's  horror  of  heathenish  rites  and  superstitious  vestiges 
had  for  its  basis  something  far  above  unreasoning  fanaticism ;  he  real- 
ized, if  not  through  learned  study,  by  an  intuition  which  had  all  the 
force  of  genius,  that  every  unmeaning  practice,  every  rustic  observance, 
which  could  not  prove  its  title  clear  to  a  noble  genealogy  was  a  pagan 
survival,  which  conscience  required  him  to  tear  up  and  destroy,  root 
and  branch. 

The  Puritan  may  have  made  himself  very  much  of  a  burden  and  a 
nuisance  to  his  neighbors  before  his  self-imposed  task  was  completed, 
yet  it  is  worthy  of  remark  and  of  praise  that  his  mission  was  a  most 
effectual  one  in  wiping  from  the  face  of  the  earth  innumerable  vestiges 
of  pre-Christian  idolatry. 

This  being  understood,  some  importance  attaches  to  the  following 
otherwise  vague  couplet  from  "Hudibras." 

"Biitler  mentions  the  black  pudding  in  his  '  Hudibras,'  speaking  of 
the  religious  scruples  of  some  of  the  fanatics  of  his  time  :  — 

"  '  Some  for  abolishing  black  pudding. 

And  eating  nothing  with  the  blood  in.'  "  — 

(Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1872,  vol.  i.  p.  400,  article 
"  Martinmas.") 

These  sausages,  made  in  links,  certainly  suggest  the  boudms  of  the 
Feast  of  Fools.  They  were  made  from  the  flesh,  blood,  and  entrails  of 
pork  killed  by  several  families  in  common  on  the  17th  day  of  Decem- 
ber, known  as  "  Sow  Day." 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Eeformation  in  Germany,  in  the  May 
games,  the  Pope  was  "portrayed  in  his  pontificalibus  riding  on  a  great 
sow,  and  holding  before  her  taster  a  dirty  pudding." — (Harington, 
^  Ajax,"  p.  35.) 

The  most  sensible  explanation  of  the  Feast  of  Fools  that  has  as  yet 


22  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

appeared  is  to  be  fouud  in  Frazer's  "  Golden  Bough  "  (London,  1890, 
vol.  i.  pp.  218  et  seq.,  article  "  Temporary  Kings").  He  shows  that 
the  regal  power  was  not  in  ancient  times  a  life  tenure,  but  was  either 
revoked  under  the  direction  of  the  priestly  body  when  the  incumbent 
began  to  show  signs  of  increasing  age  and  diminishing  mental  powers, 
or  at  the  expiration  of  a  fixed  period,  —  generally  about  twelve  years. 
In  the  lapse  of  time  the  king's  abdication  became  an  empty  form,  and 
his  renunciation  of  powers  purely  farcical,  his  temporary  successor  a 
clown  who  amused  the  fickle  populace  during  his  ephemeral  assump- 
tion of  honors.  Examples  are  drawn  from  Babylonia,  Cambodia,  Siam, 
Egypt,  India,  etc.,  the  odd  feature  being  that  these  festivals  occur  at 
dates  ranging  from  our  February  to  April.  During  the  festival  in  Siam, 
in  the  month  of  April,  "  the  dancing  Brahmans  carry  buffalo  horns  with 
which  they  draw  water  from  a  large  copper  caldron  and  sprinkle  it 
on  the  people  ;  this  is  supposed  to  bring  good  luck." —  ("  The  Golden 
Bough,"  James  G.  Fraser,  M.A.,  London,  1890,  vol.  i.  p.  230.) 

In  the  preceding  paragi-aph  we  have  a  distinct  survival.  The  buffalo 
horns  may  represent  phalli,  and  the  water  may  be  a  substitute  for  a 
liquid  which  to  the  present  generation  might  be  more  objectionable. 

But  upon  another  matter  stress  should  be  laid ;  in  both  the  Feast 
of  Fools  and  in  the  Urine  Dance  of  the  Zunis,  it  has  been  shown  that 
some  of  the  actors  were  naked  or  disguised  as  women. 

No  attempt  is  made  to  prove  anything  in  regard  to  the  European 
orgy,  because  research  has  thrown  no  light  upon  the  reasons  for  which 
the  participants  assumed  the  raiment  of  the  opposite  sex. 

In  the  case  of  the  Zuiiis,  the  author  has  had,  from  the  first,  a  sus- 
picion, which  he  took  occasion  to  communicate  to  Professor  F.  W.  Put- 
nam three  years  since,  that  these  individuals  were  of  the  class  called 
by  Father  Lafitau  "  hommes  habilies  en  femme,"  and  referred  to  with 
such  frequency  by  the  earliest  French  and  Spanish  authorities.  This 
suspicion  has  been  strengthened  by  correspondence  lately  received 
from  Professor  Bandelier  which  is,  however,  suppressed  at  the  request 
of  the  latter. 

In  this  connection,  the  student  should  not  fail  to  read  the  remark- 
able contribution  of  A.  B.  Holder,  M.  D.,  of  Memphis,  Tennessee,  in 
the  New  York  Medical  Journal  of  Dec.  7,  1889,  entitled  "The  Bote  : 
description  of  a  peculiar  sexual  perversion  found  among  the  North 
American  Indians." 

An  explanation  of  the  "  hommes  habilies  en  femme,"  may  be  sug- 
gested in  the  following  from  Boas,  descriptive    of  certain  religious 


THE  FEAST  OF  FOOLS  IN   EUROPE.  23 

dances  of  the  Eskimo  :  "  Those  who  were  born  in  abnormal  presenta- 
tions, wear  women's  dresses  at  this  feast,  and  must  make  their  round 
in  a  direction  opposite  to  the  movement  of  the  sun."  —  ("  The  Central 
Eskimo,"  Franz  Boas,  in  Sixth  Annual  Eeport,  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
Washington,  D.  C,  1888,  p.  611.) 


24  SCATALOGIC  EITES  OF  ALL  NATIO^'S. 


IV. 


THE  COMMEMORATIVE  CHARACTER  OF  RELIGIOUS 
FESTIVALS. 

T^HE  opiaion  expressed  above  concerning  the  commemorative  char- 
"^  acter  of  religious  festivals  echoes  that  which  Godfrey  Higgins  enun- 
ciated several  generations  ago.  The  learned  author  of  "  Auacalypsis  " 
says  that  festivals  "  accompanied  with  dancing  and  music "... 
"  were  established  to  keep  in  recollection  victories  or  other  important 
events."  (Higgins'  "  Anacalypsis,"  London,  1810,  vol.  ii.  p.  424.) 
He  argues  the  subject  at  some  length  on  pages  424-426,  but  the  above 
is  sufficient  for  the  present  purpose. 

**  In  the  religious  rites  of  a  people  I  should  expect  to  find  the  ear- 
liest of  their  habits  and  customs."  —  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  15.) 

Applying  the  above  remark  to  the  Zuui  dance,  it  may  be  interpreted 
as  a  dramatic  pictograph  of  some  half-forgotten  episode  in  tribal  his- 
tory. To  strengthen  this  view  by  example,  let  us  recall  the  fact  that 
the  army  of  Crusaders  under  Peter  the  Hermit  was  so  closely  be- 
leaguered by  the  ^Moslems  in  Xicomedia  in  Bithynia  that  they  were  com- 
pelled to  drink  their  own  urine.  We  read  the  narrative  set  out  in 
cold  t}'pe.  The  Zuuis  would  have  transmitted  a  record  of  the  event 
by  a  dramatic  representation  which  time  would  incrust  with  all  the 
veneration  that  religion  could  impart. 

The  authority  for  the  above  statement  in  regard  to  the  Crusaders  is 
to  be  found  in  Purchas,  "Pilgrims,"  lib.  8,  cap.  1,  p.  1191.  Neither 
Gibbon  nor  Michaud  expresses  this  fact  so  clearly,  but  each  speaks  of 
the  terrible  sufferings  which  decimated  the  undisciplined  hordes 
of  Walter  the  Penniless  and  Peter,  and  reduced  the  survivors  to 
cannibalism. 

The  urine  of  horses  was  drunk  by  the  people  of  Crotta  while 
besieged  by  Metellus.  —  (See,  in  Montaigne's  Essays,  "  On  Horses," 
cap.  xlviii. ;  see  also,  in  Harington,  "Ajax"  —  "Ulysses  upon  Ajax," 
p.  42.) 


COMMEMORATIVE   CHARACTER  OF  RELIGIOUS  FESTIVALS.         25 

Shipwrecked  English  seamen  drank  human  urine  for  want  of  water. 
(See  in  Purchas,  vol.  iv.  p.  1188.)  In  the  year  1877  Captain  Nicho- 
las Nolan,  Tenth  Cavalry,  while  scouting  with  his  troop  after  hostile 
Indians  on  the  Staked  Plains  of  Texas,  was  lost;  and  as  supplies  be- 
came exhausted,  the  command  was  reduced  to  living  for  several  days 
on  the  blood  of  their  horses  and  their  own  urine,  water  not  being 
discovered  in  that  vicinity.  —  (See  Hammersley's  Record  of  Living 
Officers  of  the  United  States  Army.) 

History  is  replete  with  examples  of  the  same  general  character; 
witness  the  sieges  of  Jerusalem,  Numantia,  Ghent,  the  famine  in 
France  under  Louis  XIV.,  and  many  others. 

THE   GENERALLY   SACRED    CHARACTER   OF    DANCING. 

"  Dancing  was  originally  merely  religious,  intended  to  assist  the  mem- 
ory in  retaining  the  sacred  learning  which  originated  previous  to  the 
invention  of  letters.  Indeed,  I  believe  that  there  were  no  parts  of  the 
rites  and  cei'emonies  of  antiquity  which  were  not  adopted  with  a 
view  to  keep  in  recollection  the  ancient  learning  before  letters  were 
known." —  (Higgins'  "  Anacalypsis,"  vol.  ii.  p.  179.) 

In  one  of  the  sieges  of  Samaria,  it  is  recorded  that  "  The  fourth  part 
of  a  cab  of  dove's  dung  sold  for  five  pieces  of  silver."  —  (2  Kings, 
vi.  25.) 

There  is  another  interpretation  of  the  meaning  of  this  expression,  not 
so  literal,  which  it  is  well  to  insert  at  this  point. 

"  When  Samaria  was  besieged,  the  town  was  a  prey  to  all  the  horrors 
of  famine  ;  hunger  was  so  extreme  that  five  pieces  of  silver  was  the 
price  given  for  a  small  measure  (fourth  part  of  a  cab)  of  dove's  dung. 
This  seems,  at  first  sight,  ridiculous.  But  Bochart  maintains  very 
plausibly  that  this  name  was  then  and  is  now  given  by  the  Arabs  to  a 
species  of  vetch  (^pois  chiches)."  —  ("Philosophy  of  Magic,"  Eusebe 
Salverte,  New  York,  1862,  vol,  i.  p.  70.) 

"  The  pulse  called  garbansos  is  believed  by  certain  authors  to  be 
the  dove's  dung  mentioned  at  the  siege  of  Samaria ;  .  .  .  they  have 
likewise  been  taken  for  the  pigeons'  dung  mentioned  at  the  siege  of 
Samaria.  And,  indeed,  as  the  cicer  is  pointed  at  one  end  and  acquires 
an  ash  color  in  parching,  the  first  of  which  circumstances  answers  to 
the  figure,  the  other  to  the  usual  color  of  pigeons'  dung,  the  supposi- 
tion is  by  no  means  to  be  disregarded."  —  ("Shaw's  Travels  in  Bar- 
bary,"  in  "  Pinkerton's  Voyages,"  London,  1814,  vol.  xv.  p.  600.) 


26  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

FRAY   DIEGO   DURAN'S   ACCOUNT   OP   THE   MEXICAN    FESTIVALS. 

All  that  Higgius  believed  was  believed  and  asserted  by  the  Dominican 
missionary  Diego  Duran.  Diiran  complains  bitterly  that  the  unwise 
destruction  of  the  ancient  Mexican  pictographs  and  all  that  explained 
the  religion  of  the  natives  left  the  missionaries  in  ignorance  as  to  what 
was  religion  and  what  was  not.  The  Indians,  taking  advantage  of  this, 
mocked  and  ridiculed  the  dogmas  and  ceremonies  of  the  new  creed  in 
the  very  face  of  its  expounders,  who  still  lacked  a  complete  mastery  of 
the  language  of  the  conquered.  The  Indians  never  could  he  induced 
to  admit  that  they  still  adhered  to  their  old  superstitions,  or  that  they 
were  boldly  indulging  in  their  religious  observances ;  many  times, 
says  the  shrewd  old  chronicler,  it  would  appear  that  they  were  merely 
indulging  in  some  pleasant  pastime,  while  they  were  really  engaged  in 
idolatry ;  or  that  they  were  playing  games,  when  truly  they  were  cast- 
ing lots  for  future  events  before  the  priest's  eyes ;  or  that  they  were 
subjecting  themselves  to  penitential  discipline,  when  they  were  sacri- 
ficing to  their  gods.  This  remark  applied  to  all  that  they  did.  In 
dances,  in  baths,  in  markets,  in  singing  their  songs,  in  their  dramas 
(the  word  is  "  comedia,""  a  comedy,  but  a  note  in  the  margin  of  the 
manuscript  says  that  probably  this  ought  to  be  "  coviida"  food,  or 
dinner,  or  feast),  in  sowing,  in  reaping,  in  putting  away  the  harvest  in 
their  granaries,  even  in  tilling  the  ground,  in  building  their  houses, 
in  their  funerals,  in  their  burials,  in  marriages,  in  the  birth  of  chil- 
dren, into  eveiything  they  did  entered  idolatry  and  superstition. 

"  Parece  muchas  veces  pensar  que  estan  haciendo  placer  y  estan 
idolatrando ;  3' pensar  que  estan  jugando  y  estan  echando  sueiies  de 
los  sucesos  delante  de  nuestros  ojos  y  no  los  entendemos  y  pensamos 
que  se  disciplinan  y  estanse  sacrificando. 

"  Y  asi  erraron  mucho  los  que  con  bueno  celo  (pero  no  con  mucha 
prudencia),  quemaron  y  destruyeron  al  principio  todas  las  pinturas  de 
antiguallas  que  tenian ;  pues,  nos  dejaron  tan  sin  luz  que  delante  de 
nuestros  ojos  idolatran  y  no  los  entendemos. 

"  En  los  raitotes,  en  los  baiios,  en  los  mercados,  y  en  los  cantares  que 
can  tan  lamentando  sus  Dioses  y  sus  Senores  Antiguos,  en  las  comedias, 
en  los  banquetes,  y  en  el  diferenciar  en  el  de  ellas,  en  todo  se  halla 
supersticion  6  idolatria ;  en  el  sembi-ar,  en  el  coger,  en  el  encerrar  en 
los  troges,  hasta  en  el  labrar  la  tierra  y  edificar  las  casas ;  pues  en  los 
raortuorios  y  entierros,  y  en  los  casamientos  y  en  los  nacimientos  de 
los  ninos,  especialmente  si  era  hijo  de  algun  Sefior ;  eran  estranas  las 


COMMEMORATIVE   CHARACTER   OF   RELIGIOUS   FESTIVALS.         27 

ceremonias  que  se  le  hacian ;  y  donde  todo  se  perfeccionaba  era  en  la 
celebracion  de  las  fiestas ;  finalmente,  en  todo  mezclaban  supersticion  e 
idolatria ;  hasta  eu  irse  a  bafiarse  al  rio  los  viejos,  puesto  escrupulo  a 
la  republica  siuo  fuese  habiendo  precedido  tales  y  tales  ceremonias ; 
todo  lo  cual  nos  es  encubierto  por  el  gran  secreto  que  tieneu."  —  (Diego 
Duran,  lib.  2,  concluding  remarks.) 

Fray  Diego  Duran,  a  Fray  Prcdicador  of  the  Dominican  order,  says, 
at  the  end  of  his  second  volume,  that  it  was  finished  in  1581. 

The  very  same  views  were  held  by  Father  Geronimo  Boscana,  a  Fran- 
ciscan, who  ministered  for  seventeen  years  to  the  Indians  of  California. 
Every  act  of  an  Indian's  life  was  guided  by  religion.  —  (See  "Chinig- 
chinich,"  included  in  A.  A.  Eobinson's  "California,"  New  York,  1850.) 

The  Apaches  have  dances  in  which  the  prehistoric  condition  of  the 
tribe  is  thus  represented ;  so  have  the  Mojaves  and  the  Zufiis ;  while 
in  the  snake  dance  of  the  Moquis  and  the  sun  dance  of  the  Sioux 
the  same  faithful  adherence  to  traditional  costume  and  manners  is 
apparent. 

THE   URIXE    DANCE    OF   THE    ZUNIS    MAY   CONSERVE   A   TRADITION    OF 
THE   TIME   WHEN    VILE   ALIMENT   WAS    IN    USE. 

The  Zuni  dance  may  therefore  not  improperly  be  considered  among 
other  points  of  view,  under  that  which  suggests  a  commemoration  of 
the  earliest  life  of  this  people,  when  vile  aliment  of  every  kind  may  have 
been  in  use  through  necessity. 

An  examination  of  evidence  will  show  that  foods  now  justly  regarded 
as  noxious  were  once  not  unknown  to  nations  of  even  greater  develop- 
ment than  any  as  yet  attained  by  the  Rio  Grande  Pueblos. 

Necessity  was  not  always  the  inciting  motive  ;  frequently  religious 
frenzy  was  responsible  for  orgies  of  which  only  vague  accounts  and  still 
vaguer  explanations  have  come  down  to  us. 

The  religious  examples  will  be  adduced  at  a  later  moment,  as  will 
those  in  which  human  or  animal  excreta  have  been  employed  in  ordeals 
and  punishments,  terrestrial  and  supernal. 

So  long  as  the  lines  of  investigation  are  included  within  civilized 
limits,  the  instances  noticed  very  properly  fall  under  the  classification  of 
mania  and  of  abnormal  appetite  ;  and  the  latter,  in  turn,  may  be  sub- 
divided into  the  two  classes  of  the  innate  and  the  acquired,  the  second 
of  which  has  presented  a  constant  decrease  since  physicians  have  re- 
jected such  disgusting  remedial  agents  from  the  Materia  Medica. 


28  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

That  both  human  ordure  and  urine  have  been,  and  that  they  may 
still  to  a  limited  extent  be,  added  by  the  rustic  population  of  portions 
of  Europe  to  the  contents  of  love  philters  is  a  fact  established  beyond 
peradventure ;  and  that  the  followers  of  the  Grand  Lama  of  Thibet 
stand  accused,  on  what  has  the  semblance  of  excellent  authority,  of  ob- 
taining from  their  priests  the  egestae  of  that  potent  hierarch  and  adopt- 
ing them  as  condiments,  food,  charms,  amulets,  and  talismans,  as  well 
as  internal  medicines,  will  be  fully  stated  in  the  cha2)ters  devoted 
to  that  purpose. 

Schurig  gives  numerous  examples  of  the  eating  of  human  and  animal 
excrement  by  epileptics,  by  maniacs,  by  chlorotic  young  women,  or  by 
women  in  pregnancy,  by  children  who  had  defiled  their  beds  and 
dreading  detection  swallowed  the  evidences  of  their  guilt,  and  finally 
by  men  and  women  with  abnormal  appetites.  —  (See  Schurig,  "  Chylo- 
logia,"  Dresden,  1725,  pp.  45,  81,  84,  780-782.) 

Burton  relates  the  story  of  a  young  German  girl,  Catherine  Gualter, 
in  1571,  as  told  by  Cornelius  Gemma,  who  vomited,  "among  other 
things,  pigeons'  dung  and  goose-dung."  She  was  apparently  a  victim 
of  hysteria,  and  in  her  paroxysms  had  previously  swallowed  all  manner 
of  objectionable  matter.  —  (See  "  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  edition  of 
London,  1806,  vol.  i.  p.  76.) 

"  On  a  vu,  surtout  dans  les  hopitaux,  des  femmes  se  faire  un  jeu 
d'avaler  clandestinement  leurs  urines  h.  mesure  qu'elles  les  rendaient,  et 
essayer  faire  croire  qu'elles  n'en  rendaient  point  du  tout."  —  (Personal 
letter  to  Captain  Bourke  from  Mr.  Frank  Rede  Fowke,  dated  Depart- 
ment of  Science  and  Art,  South  Kensington  Museum,  London,  S.  W., 
June  18,  1888.) 


HUMAN  EXCREMENT  USED   IN  FOOD.  29 


V. 

HUMAN   EXCREMENT  USED   IN   FOOD  BY  THE  INSANE 
AND   OTHERS. 

T^HE  subject  (jf  excrement-eating  among  insane  persons  has  engaged 
-*-  the  attention  of  medical  experts.  H.  B.  Obersteiner,  in  a  communi- 
cation to  the  "  Psychiatrisches  Centralblatt,"  Wien,  1871,  vol.  iii.  p.  95, 
informs  that  periodical  that  Dr.  A.  Erlenmeyer,  Jr.,  induced  by  a  lec- 
ture delivered  by  Professor  Lang  in  1872,  had  prepared  a  tabulated 
series  of  data  embodying  the  results  of  his  observations  upon  the  ex- 
istence of  cophrophagy  among  insane  persons.  He  found  that  one  in 
a  hundred  of  persons  suffering  from  mental  diseases  indulged  in  this 
abnormal  appetite  ;  the  majority  of  these  were  men.  No  particular 
relation  could  be  established  between  excrement-eating  and  Onanism  ; 
and  no  deleterious  effect  upon  the  alimentary  organs  was  detected. 

*'  In  pathological  reversion  of  type,  due  to  cerebral  disease,  there  are 
certain  stages  in  some  forms  of  mental  disease  in  which  some  of  the 
actions  to  which  you  refer  are  not  uncommon."  —  (Personal  letter  to 
Captain  Bourke  from  Surgeon  John  S.  Billings,  U.  S.  Army,  in  charge 
of  the  Army  Medical  Museum,  dated  Washington,  D.  C,  April  23, 
1888.) 

"  A  boy  of  four  years  old  had  fouled  in  bed  ;  but  being  much  afraid 
of  whipping,  he  ate  his  own  dung,  yet  he  could  not  blot  the  sign  out 
of  the  sheets ;  wherefore,  being  asked  by  threatenings,  he  at  length 
tells  the  chance.  But  being  asked  of  its  savor,  he  said  it  was  of  a 
stinking  and  somewhat  sweet  one.  ...  A  noble  little  virgin,  being  very 
desirous  of  her  salvation,  eats  her  own  dung,  and  was  weak  and  sick. 
She  was  asked  of  what  savor  it  was,  and  she  answered  it  was  of  a 
stinking  and  a  waterishly  sweet  one."  These  examples  Yon  Helmont 
says  were  personally  known  to  him,  as  was  that  of  the  painter  of 
Brussels  who,  going  mad,  subsisted  for  twenty-three  days  on  his  own 
excrements.  —  (See  Yon  Helmont's  "  Oritrika  "  (English  translation), 
London,  1662,  pp.  211,  212.  Yon  Helmont's  work  is  a  folio  of  1161 
pages.) 


30  SCATALOGIC   TJTES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

A  French  lady  was  in  the  habit  of  carrying  about  her  pulverized 
human  excrements,  which  she  ate,  and  would  afterwards  lick  her  fingers. 
(Christian  Franz  Paullini,  "  Dreck  Apothek,"  Frankfort,  1G96,  p.  9.) 
Paullini  also  gives  the  instance  of  the  painter  of  Brussels  already  cited 
on  preceding  page. 

"  Bouillon  Lagrange,  pharmacien  a  Paris,  que  ses  confreres  appellaient 
Bouillon  a  Pointu,  a  public  uu  ouvrage,  intitule  la  Chimie  du  Gout, 
sur  la  fabrication  des  liqueurs  de  table,  et  il  donne  la  recette  d'une 
])reparation  qu'il  appelle  Eau  de  Mille  Fleurs  qui  se  compose  de  bouse 
de  vache,  infusee  dans  I'eau  de  vie."  —  ("  Bibliotheca  Scatalogica," 
pp.  93-96.) 

"  As  to  the  excrements  of  the  cow,  they  are  still  used  to  form  the 
so-called  '  eau  de  mille  fleurs,'  recommended  by  several  pharmaco- 
poeias as  a  remedy  for  cachexy." —  ("Zoological  Mythology,"  Angelo 
de  Gubernatis,  London,  1874,  vol.  i.  p.  275-277.) 

"  Scatophagi.  Ces  gourmets  d'un  genre  particulier,  ces  ruminants  de 
nouvelle  espece,  ces  epicuriens  biases  ou  raffines,  s'appellaient  scato- 
phages,  ou  scybalophages.  (De  scybales,  scybala,  a-Kv/SaXa.  Voyez 
dans  Dioscoride,  lib.  5,  c.  77,  et  Gorreus,  Def.  med.  p.  579,  les  diverses 
acceptious  de  ce  mot.)  L'empereur  Commode  ^tait  de  ceux-la ;  *  Dicitur 
saepe  praetiosissimis  cibis  humana  stercora  miscuisse,  nee  abstinuisse 
gustu,'  dit  Lampride  (Vie  de  l'empereur  Commode,  p.  160).  Ried- 
linus  (Linear.  Medic,  an.  1697,  mens.  nov.  obs.  23,  p.  800)  rapporte  le 
cas  d'une  femme  qui  affirmait  'nullum  cibum  in  tota  vita  sua  palato 
magis  satisfecisse.*  Sauvage  (Nosologic  methodique)  dit  qu'nne  fiUe 
lui  a  avou^  qu'elle  avait  mange  jadis  avec  un  plaisir  infini  la  croute  qui 
s'attache  aux  murailles  des  latrines.  Zacutus  Lusitanus  a  connu  une 
demoiselle  qui,  ayant  par  hasard  goute  ses  excrements,  en  fit  dans  la 
suite  sa  nourriture  fiivorite,  au  point  qu'elle  ne  pouvait  en  passer  sans 
etre  malade. 

"J.  J.  Wypffer,  Dec.  IIII  an.  2,  obs.  135,  schol.,  p.  199,  rapporte  un 
fait  du  meme  genre.  De  meme  :  Ehrenfrcid  ;  Pagendoraius  (Obs.  et 
hist.  phys.  med.  cent.  3,  hist.  95) ;  Daniel  Ereraita  (Descript.  Helvet. 
open  p.  402)  ;  P.  Tollius  (Epist.  itinerar.  62,  p.  247)  ;  Tob.  Pfanner 
(Diatrib.  de  Charismati,  seu  miracul.  et  antiq.  eccles.,  c.  2)  ;  [Citations 
are  also  made  from  Yon  Helmont,  Frommann,  Posinus  Lentilius,  and 
Paullini,  which  have  been  quoted  elsewhere  direct  from  those  authors.] 
P.  Borellus  (Obs.  phys.  med.  cent.  4,  obs.  2)  ;  J.  Johnstonus 
(Thaumagograph,  admirand.  homin.  c.  2,  art.  2)  ;  George  Hanneous 
(Dec.  IL,  an.  8,  obs.  115);  P.  Romelius  (Dec.  III.,  an  7  and  8,  obs. 


HUMAN  EXCREMENT  USED   IN   FOOD.  31 

40)  ;  Mich.  Bern.  Valentin.  (Novell,  med.  log.  as.  II.).  Nous  croyona 
nous  rappeler  qu'il  existe  des  exeniples  du  lucme  genre  dans  I'ouvrage 
de  J.  B.  Cardan,  intitule  :  '  De  Abstinentis  ab  usu  ciborum  fetido- 
rum,'  libellus  imprimc  k  la  suite  du  traite  *  Do  Utilitate  ex  adversis 
capienda '  de  son  pere.  On  a  connu  k  Paris  un  riche  bourgeois,  nommc 
Paperal,  qui,  par  une  Strange  depravation  de  goilt,  avalait  des  excre- 
ments de  petits  enfants.  (Yirey,  Nouv.  Diet,  d'hist.  nat.  Deterville, 
torn.  X.)  La  traduction  memo  rapporte  qu'ils  les  mangeait  avec  une 
cuiller  d'or.  Ce  n'est  pas  le  seul  exemple  d'un  gotit  aussi  bizarre. 
Bouillon  portait  toujours  une  boite  d'or  remplie  non  de  tabac,  mais 
des  excrements  huniains.  (Voy.  Dulaure,  Hist,  de  Paris,  edit,  de  1825, 
t.  VII.  p.  262.)"— (Bibliotheca  Scatalogica,  pages  93  to  96.) 

"  La  fiente  de  becasse,  dont  les  fines  gourmets,  veritablement  scato- 
pbages,  sont,  corame  on  sait,  tres  friands." —  (Bibliotheca  Scatalogica, 
p.  133.) 

In  this  curious  book,  full  of  learning  and  research,  there  are  cita- 
tions from  more  than  three  hundred  authorities,  some  of  tiiem,  of 
course,  merely  obscene  and  not  coming  within  tlie  purview  of  these 
notes,  but  others,  as  may  be  readily  understood  from  reading  the  ex- 
tracts taken  from  them,  of  the  highest  value  in  a  scientific  sense. 
Schurig  gives  an  instance  of  voracity  in  which  a  certain  glutton,  after 
consuming  all  other  food  in  sight,  was  wont  to  satisfy  himself  with 
urine  and  excrement :  "  Et  si  panes  deerant,  sua  ipse  excrementa 
comedebat  et  lotium  bibebat."  (Schurig,  "  Cbylologia,"  Dresden, 
1725,  p.  52.)  A  case  is  given  of  a  patient  who  having  once  expe- 
rienced the  beneficial  effects  of  mouse-dung  in  some  complaint,  be- 
came a  confirmed  mouse-dung  eater,  and  was  in  the  habit  of  picking  it 
i;p  from  the  floor  of  his  house  before  the  servants  could  sweep  it  away. 
—  (See  Schurig,  "  Chylologia,"  Dresden,  1725,  p.  823  et  seq.) 

The  enceinte  wife  of  a  farmer  in  the  town  of  Hassfort,  on  the  Main, 
ate  the  excrements  of  her  husband,  warm  and  smoking.  —  (See  Chris- 
tian Franz  Paullini,  "Dreck  Apothek,"  edition  of  Frankfort,  1696, 
page  8.  See  also  quotation  from  "  Ephemeridum  Physico- Medico- 
rum,"  Leipsig.  1694,  on  page  212  of  this  volume.) 

"  Chacun  en  fait,  en  voit,  en  sent,  en  touche,  en  parle,  souvent  en 
ecrit,  quelquefois  en  lit,  et  si  chacun  n'en  mange  pas,  c'est  que  nous 
ne  sommes  pas  encore  au  temps  oh  les  becasses  tomberont  toutes 
roties;  mais  de  celui-la  en  voudrait  manger." — (Bibliotheca  Scata- 
logica, p.  21,  "Oratio  pro  Guano  Humano.") 

An  extract  is  here  given  from  a  letter  sent  to  Charlotte  Elizabeth  of 


32  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Bavaria,  Princess-Palatine,  daughter  of  Charles  Louis,  Elector-Palatine 
of  the  Rhine,  born  at  Heidelberg,  in  1652;  she  married  the  brother 
of  Louis  XIV.,  the  widower  of  Henrietta  Maria  of  England. 

The  letter  in  question  was  sent  her  by  her  aunt,  the  wife  of  the 
Elector  of  Hanover,  and  may  serve  to  give  an  idea  of  the  boldness  of 
the  opinions  entertained  by  the  ladies  of  high  rank  in  that  era,  and  the 
coarseness  with  which  they  expressed  them  :  — 

"  Hanovre,  31  Octobre,  1694. 

"  Si  la  viande  fait  la  merde,  il  est  vrai  de  dire  que  la  merde  fait  la 
viande.  .  .  .  Est-ce  que  dans  les  tables  les  plus  delicates,  la  merde 
n'y  est  pas  servie  en  ragoHtsI  .  .  .  Les  boudins,  les  andouilles,  les 
saucisses,  ne  sont-ce  pas  de  ragoiits  dans  des  sacs  k  merde  1 " 

The  letters  here  spoken  of  are  to  be  found  almost  complete  in  the 
Bibliotheca  Scatalogica,  pages  17-21. 

The  following  appeared  in  an  article  headed  "The  Last  Cholera 
Epidemic  in  Paris,"  in  the  "General  Homoeopathic  Journal,"  vol. 
cxiii.,  page  15,  1886:  "The  neighbors  of  an  establishment  famous 
for  its  excellent  bread,  pastry,  and  similar  products  of  luxury,  com- 
plained again  and  again  of  the  disgusting  smells  which  prevailed 
therein  and  which  penetrated  into  their  dwellings.  The  appearance 
of  cholera  finally  lent  force  to  these  complaints,  and  the  sanitaiy  in- 
spectors who  were  sent  to  investigate  the  matter  found  that  there  was 
a  connection  between  the  water-closets  of  these  dwellings  and  the  reser- 
voir containing  the  water  used  in  the  preparation  of  the  bread.  This 
connection  was  cut  oft'  at  once,  but  the  immediate  result  thereof  was 
a  perceptible  deterioration  of  the  quality  of  the  bread.  Chemists  have 
evidently  no  difficulty  in  demonstrating  that  water  impregnated  with 
*  extract  of  water-closet,'  has  the  peculiar  property  of  causing  dough 
to  rise  particularly  fine,  thereby  imparting  to  bread  the  nice  appear- 
ance and  pleasant  flavor  which  is  the  principal  quality  of  luxurious 
bread."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Dr.  Gustav  Jaeger,  Stuttgart,  Ger- 
many.    See  page  39.) 


EXCREMENT  USED   IN   FOOD   BY  SAVAGE  TKIBES.  33 


VI. 

THE  EMPLOYMENT  OF  EXCREMENT  IN  FOOD  BY 
SAVAGE  TRIBES. 

nPHE  very  earliest  accoimts  of  the  Indians  of  Florida  and  Texas  re- 
-■-  fer  to  the  use  of  such  aliment.  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  one  of  the  sur- 
vivors of  the  ill-fated  expedition  of  Panfilo  de  Narvaez,  was  a  prisoner 
among  various  tribes  for  many  years,  and  finally,  accompanied  by 
three  comrades  as  wretched  as  himself,  succeeded  in  traversing  the 
continent,  coming  out  at  Culiacan,  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  in  1536.  His 
narrative  says  that  the  " Floridians,"  "for  food,  dug  roots,  and  that 
they  ate  spiders,  ants'  eggs,  worms,  lizards,  salamanders,  snakes,  earth, 
wood,  the  dung  of  deer,  and  many  other  things."  *  The  same  account, 
given  in  Purchas's  "Pilgrims"  (vol.  iv.  lib.  8,  cap.  1,  sec.  2,  p.  1512) 
expresses  it  that  "  they  also  eat  earth,  wood,  and  whatever  they  can 
get ;  the  dung  of  wild  beasts."  These  remarks  may  be  understood  as 
applying  to  all  tribes  seen  by  this  early  explorer  east  of  the  Rocky 
mountains. 

Gomara  identifies  this  loathsome  diet  with  a  particular  tribe,  the 
"  Yaguaces  "  of  Florida.  "  They  eat  spiders,  ants,  worms,  lizards  of  two 
kinds,  snakes,  earth,  wood,  and  ordui'e  of  all  kinds  of  wild  animals."' 

The  California  Indians  were  still  viler.  The  German  Jesuit,  Father 
Jacob  Baegert,  speaking  of  the  Lower  Californians  (among  whom  he 
resided  continuously  from  1748  to  1765),  says  :  — 

"They  eat  the  seeds  of  the  pitahaya  (giant  cactus)  which  have 
passed  off  undigested  from  their  own  stomachs ;  they  gather  their  own 

1  "  lis  mangent  des  araignees,  des  oeufs  de  fourmis,  des  vers,  des  lezards,  des 
salamandres,  des  couleuvres,  de  la  terre,  du  bois,  de  la  fiente  de  cerfs,  et  bien 
d'autres  choses."  —  (Alvar  Nuftez  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  in  "Ternaux,"  vol.  vii.  p.  144.) 

*  "  Comen  araiias,  hormigas,  gusanos,  salamanqiiesas,  lagartijas,  culebras,  palos, 
tierra,  y  cagajones  y  cagarnitas."  —  (Gomara,  "  Historia  de  las  Indias,"  p.  182.) 
He  derives  his  information  from  the  narrative  of  Vaca.  The  word  "cagajon" 
means  horse-dung,  the  dung  of  mules  and  asses  ;  "cagarruta,"  the  dung  of  sheep, 
goats,  and  mice. 

3 


34  SCATALOGIC  EITES   OF  ALT-   NATIONS. 

excrement,  separate  the  seeds  from  it,  roast,  grind,  and  eat  them, 
making  merry  over  the  loathsome  meal."  And  again  :  "  In  the  mis- 
sion of  Saint  Ignatius,  .  .  ,  there  are  persons  who  will  attach  a  piece 
of  meat  to  a  string  and  swallow  it  and  pull  it  out  again  a  dozen  times 
in  succession,  for  the  sake  of  protracting  the  enjoyment  of  its  taste,"  — 
(Translation  of  Dr.  Charles  F.  Rau,  in  Annual  Report,  Smithsonian 
Institution,  18G6,  p.  3G3.) 

A  similar  use  of  meat  tied  to  a  string  is  understood  to  have  once 
been  practised  by  European  sailors  for  the  pui-pose  of  teasing  green 
comrades  suli'ering  from  the  agonies  of  sea-sickness. 

(Fuegians.)  "  One  of  them  immediately  coughed  up  a  piece  of  blub- 
ber which  he  had  been  eating  and  gave  it  to  another,  who  swallowed  it 
with  much  ceremony  and  with  a  peculiar  guttural  noise."  —  ("Voyage 
of  the  Adventure  and  Beagle,"  London,  1839,  vol.  i.  p.  315.) 

The  same  information  is  to  b6  found  in  Clavigero  ("  Historia  de  la 
Baja  California,"  Mexico,  1852,  p.  24),  and  in  H.  H.  Bancroft's  "  Native 
Races  of  the  Pacific  Slope,"  vol.  i.  p.  5G1  ;  both  of  whom  derive  from 
Father  Baegert.  Orozco  y  Berra  also  has  the  story  ;  but  he  adds  that 
oftentimes  numbers  of  the  Californians  would  meet  and  pass  the  de- 
licious tid-bit  from  mouth  to  mouth.* 

Castaiieda  alludes  to  the  Californians  as  a  race  of  naked  savages, 
who  at'e  their  own  exci-ement.** 

The  Indians  of  North  America,  according  to  Harmon,  "boil  the 
bufialo  paunch  with  much  of  its  dung  adhering  to  it,"  —  a  filthy  mode 
of  cooking  which  in  itself  would  mean  little,  since  it  can  be  par- 
alleled in  almost  all  tribes.  But  in  another  paragraph  the  same 
author  says  :  "  Many  consider  a  broth  made  by  means  of  the  dung  of 
the  cariboo  and  the  hare  to  be  a  dainty  dish"  (Harmon's  "  Jourual," 
etc.,  Andover,  1820,  p.  324).8 

1  "  Algunas  veces  se  juntan  varies  Indies  y  a  la  reclonda  va  corriendo  el  bocado 
de  uno  en  otro." —  (Orozco  y  Berra,  "  Geografia  de  las  lenguas  de  Mejico,"  Mexico, 
1854,  p.  359.) 

2  "  Peuple  de  sauvages  qui  vont  tons  nus,  et  qui  mangent  leurs  propres  ordures." 
—  (Casta&Rda,  in  Ternaux,  vol.  ix.  p.  156.) 

Castaiieda  de  Nagera  accompanied  the  expedition  of  Francisco  Vasquez  de  Coro- 
nado,  which  entered  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and  the  buffalo  country  in  1540-1542. 
Part  of  this  expedition,  under  Don  Garcia  Lope  de  Cardena,  went  down  the  Colo- 
rado River,  which  separates  California  from  Arizona  ;  while  another  detachment, 
under  Melchior  Diaz,  struck  the  river  closer  to  its  mouth,  and  crossed  into  what  is 
now  California. 

'  HaiTOon's  notes  are  of  special  interest  at  this  point  because  he  is  speaking  of 
the  Ta-cuUy  or  Carriers,  wlio  belong  to  the  same  Tinneh  stock  as  the  Apaches  and 


EXCREMENT  USED   IN   FOOD   BY   SAVAGE  TRIBES.  35 

The  Abbe  Domenech  asserts  the  same  of  the  bands  near  Lake 
Superior :  "  In  boiling  their  wild  rice  to  eat,  they  mix  it  with  the  ex- 
crement of  rabbits,  —  a  delicacy  appreciated  by  the  epicures  among 
them"  (Domenech,  "Deserts,"  vol.  ii.  p.  311). 

Of  the  negroes  of  Guinea  an  old  authority  relates  that  they  "  ate 
filthy,  stinking  elephant's  and  buffalo's  flesh,  wherein  there  is  a  thou- 
sand maggots,  and  many  times  stinks  like  carrion.  They  eat  raw 
dogge  guts,  and  never  seethe  nor  roast  them  "  (De  Bry,  Ind.  Orient,  in 
Purchas's  "Pilgrims,"  vol.  ii.  p.  905).  And  another  says  that  the 
Mosagueys  make  themselves  a  "  pottage  with  milk  and  fresh  dung  of 
kine,  which,  mixed  together  and  heat  at  the  fire,  they  drinke,  saying  it 
makes  them  strong"  (Purchas,  lib.  9,  cap.  12,  sec.  4,  p.  1555). 

The  Peruvians  ate  their  meat  and  fish  raw  ;  but  nothing  further  is 
said  by  Gomara.  "  Comen  crudo  la  came  y  el  pescado "  (Gomara, 
"  Hist,  de  las  Indias,"  p.  234.) 

The  savages  of  Australia  "make  a  sweet  and  luscious  beverage  by 
mixing  taarp  with  water.  Taarp  is  the  excrement  of  a  small  green 
beetle,  wherein  the  larvae  thereof  are  deposited."  —  ("  The  Aborigines 
of  Victoria  and  Riverina,"  P.  Beveridge,  Melbourne,  1889,  p.  126;  re- 
ceived through  the  kindness  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Sydney,  New 
South  Wales,  T.  B.  Kyngdon,  Secretary.) 

"  One  of  them  (Snakes),  who  had  seized  about  nine  feet  of  the  en- 
trails, was  chewing  it  at  one  end,  while  with  his  hand  he  was  diligently 
clearing  his  way  by  discharging  the  contents  of  the  other.  It  was  in- 
deed impossible  to  see  these  wretches  ravenously  feeding  on  the  filth  of 
animals,  and  the  blood  streaming  from  their  mouths,  without  deploring 
how  nearly  the  condition  of  savages  approaches  that  of  the  brute  crea" 
tion." —  (Lewis  and  Clark,  quoted  by  Spencer,  "  Descriptive  Sociology  : 
'  Snakes.' ") 

"  Some  authors  have  said  that  all  the  Hottentots  devour  the  entrails 
of  beasts,  uncleansed  of  their  filth  and  excrements,  and  that,  whether 
sound  or  rotten,  they  consider  them  as  the  greatest  delicacies  in  the 
world  ;  but  this  is  not  true.  I  have  always  found  that  when  they 
had  entrails  to  eat  they  turned  and  stripped  them  of  their  filth  and 
washed  them  in  clear  water." —  ("  Peter  Kolben's  Voyage  to  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,"  in  Knox's  "Voyages  and  Travels,'*  London,  1777,  vol.  ii. 
p.  385.) 

Navajoes  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  Lipans  of  Texas,  Umpquas  of  Washington 
Territory,  Hoopahs  of  California,  and  SIocuss  of  the  head-waters  of  the  Columbia 
River. 


36  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Atkinson  declined  to  dine  with  a  party  of  Kirghis  who  had  killed  a 
sheep,  "  having  seen  the  entrails  put  into  the  pan  after  undergoing  but 
a  very  slight  purification."  —  ("Siberia,"  T.  W.  Atkinson,  New  York, 
18G5,  p.  219,  and  again  p.  433.) 

"  The  entrails  of  animals  and  other  refuse  matter  thrown  overboard 
from  the  English  ships  is  eagerly  collected  and  eaten  by  the  Cochi- 
Chiuese,  whom  Mr.  White  even  accuses  of  having  a  predilection  for 
tilth."— ("Encyc.  of  Geography,"  Philadelphia,  1845,  vol.  ii.  p.  397, 
article  "  Farther  India.") 

(Arabs  of  the  Red  Sea.)  "The  water  of  Dobelew  and  Irwee  tasted 
strongly  of  musk,  from  the  dung  of  the  goats  and  antelopes,  and  the 
smell  before  you  drink  it  is  more  nauseous  than  the  taste."  —  ("Trav- 
els to  discover  the  Source  of  the  Nile,"  James  Bruce,  Dublin,  1790, 
vol.  i.  p.  367.) 

From  thus  enduring  water  polluted  with  the  excrements  of  animals 
to  drinking  beverages  to  which  urine  has  been  purposely  added,  as  Sir 
Samuel  Baker  and  Colonel  Chaille  Long  show  to  have  been  the  custom 
of  the  negroes  near  Goudokoro  with  their  milk,  is  but  a  very  small 
step. 

Chaille  Long  relates  that  in  Central  Africa  he  and  his  men  were 
obliged  to  drink  water  which  was  a  mixture  of  the  excrements  of  the 
rhinoceros  and  the  elephant  (see  "  Central  Africa,"  New  York,  1877, 
p.  86).  Livingston  tells  us  that  the  Africans  living  along  the  banks  of 
the  Zambesi  are  careful  not  to  drink  except  from  springs  or  wells  which 
they  dig  in  the  sand.  "  During  nearly  nine  months  in  the  year  oi-dure 
is  deposited  aroimd  countless  villages  along  the  thousands  of  miles 
drained  by  the  Zambesi.  When  the  heavy  rains  come  down  and  sweep 
the  vast  fetid  accumulation  into  the  torrents  the  water  is  polluted  with 
filth"  (" Zambesi,"London,  1865,  p.  181). 

Rev.  J.  Owen  Dorsey  reports  that  he  has  seen,  while  among  the 
Ponkas,  "  a  woman  and  a  child  devour  the  entrails  of  a  beef,  with  the 
contents  "  (personal  letter  to  Captain  Bourke). 

Reclus  says  that  the  Eastern  Inuit  eat  excrement.  "  lis  ne  r^culent 
pas  devant  les  intestins  de  Tours,  pas  mSme  devant  ses  excrements,  et 
se  jettent  avec  avidite  sur  la  nourriture  mal  digeree  qu'ils  retirent  du 
ventre  des  rennes"  ("Les  Primitifs,"  Paris,  1885,  pp.  31,  32).  "Les 
Ygarrotes  des  Philippines,  qui  versent  comme  sauce  a  leur  viande  crue 
le  jus  des  fientes  d'un  baffle  fraichement  abattu  "  (idem,  p.  31). 

The  tribes  of  Angola,  West  Africa,  cook  the  entrails  of  deer  without 
removing  the  contents ;  tliis  is  for  the  purpose  of  getting  a  flavor,  as 


EXCREMENT  USED   IN  FOOD   BY   SAVAGE  TRIBES.  37 

the  excrement  itself  is  not  eaten  (**  Muhougo,"  interpretation  by  Rev. 
Mr.  Chatelain). 

The  Thibetan  monk  was  not  to  eat  entrails.  "  Ne  pas  manger  des 
tripes  "  ("  Pratimoksha  Sutra,"  W.  "W.  Rockhill,  Soc.  Asiatique,  Paris, 
1885.) 

(Tunguses  of  Siberia.)  "They  eat  up  every  part  of  the  animal 
which  they  kill,  not  throwing  away  even  the  impurities  of  the  bowels, 
with  which  they  make  a  sort  of  black  pudding  by  a  mixture  of  blood 
aud  fat."  —  (Gavrila  Sarytschew,  in  Phillips's  "Voyages,"  London, 
1807,  vol.  V.) 

Natives  of  Eastern  Siberia  "  ate  with  avidity  the  entrails  of  the  seal 
■without  cleaning  in  the  least  the  partly  digested  food  from  the  intes- 
tines, the  ordure  of  the  seal  being  as  offensive  to  civilized  man  as 
the  faeces  of  men  or  dogs."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Chief  Engineer 
Melville,  U.  S.  Navy,  to  Captain  Bourke.) 

The  Aleuts  and  Indians  from  the  extreme  northern  coast  of  America 
with  Melville's  party  displayed  the  same  appetite  for  the  half-digested 
contents  of  the  paunches  of  the  seals  killed  by  them.  This  appetite 
was  not  due  to  lack  of  food,  as  Melville  takes  care  to  explain.  At 
another  time  he  detected  his  "  natives  "  in  the  act  of  eating  "  plenti- 
fully, though  covertly,  of  the  droppings  of  the  reindeer  "  (idem). 


38  SCATALOGIC  BITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


VII. 

URINE  IN   HUMAN   FOOD. 

CHINOOK    OLIVES. 

'T^HE  addition  of  urine  to  human  food  is  mentioned  by  various 
-■-  writers.  Speaking  of  the  Chinooks,  Paul  Kane  describes  a  deli- 
cacy manufactured  by  some  of  the  Indians  among  whom  he  trav- 
elled, and  called  by  him  "  Chinook  Olives."  They  were  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  acorns  soaked  for  five  months  in  human  urine  (see  Kane, 
"Artist's  Wanderings  in  North  America,"  London,  1859,  p.  187). 
Spencer  copies  Kane's  story  in  his  "  Descriptive  Sociology,"  article 
"Chinooks." 

*'  In  Queensland,  near  Darlington,  there  is  a  tract  of  country  covered 
with  a  peculiar  species  of  pine,  yielding  an  edible  nut  of  which  the 
natives  are  extremely  fond.  .  .  .  The  men  would  form  large  clay  pans 
in  the  soil,  into  which  they  would  urinate  ;  they  would  then  collect 
an  abundance  of  these  seeds  and  steep  them  in  the  urine.  A  fermenta- 
tion took  place,  and  all  the  seeds  were  devoured  greedily,  the  effect 
being  to  cause  a  temporary  madness  among  the  men,  —  in  fact  a  per- 
fect delirium  tremens.  On  these  occasions  it  was  dangerous  for  any  one 
to  approach  them.  The  liquid  was  not  used  in  any  way."  —  (Personal 
letter  from  John  F.  Mann,  Esq.,  Neutral  Bay,  Sydney,  New  South 
Wales.) 

This  account  not  only  recalls  the  story  told  by  the  artist  Kane  in 
the  preceding  paragraph,  but  establishes  the  fact  that  in  Australia 
there  is  something  with  a  marvellous  resemblance  to  the  Ur-Orgie  of 
the  people  of  Siberia. 

Chief  Engineer  George  W.  Melville,  U.  S.  Navy,  author  of  "  In  the 
Lena  Delta,"  has  had  much  experience  with  the  natives  of  Northern 
Siberia,  among  whom  it  was  his  misfortune  to  be  cast  away.  In  a  per- 
sonal letter  to  Captain  Bourke  be  states  that  he  observed  several  in- 
stances of  Siberian  women  drinking  their  own  or  their  neighbor's 
freshly  voided  urine.     Once,  in  Sutke  Harbor,  Saint  Lawrence  Bay, 


URINE  IN  HUMAN   FOOD.  39 

near  East  Cape,  when  he  "  frowned  at  their  unclean  and  unseemly  act, 
they  seemed  very  much  amused,  and  after  a  moment's  talk,  one  of 
them  voided  her  urine  and  another  drank  it,  both  being  very  much 
diverted  by  my  disgust."  He  further  relates  that  when  his  "natives  " 
could  not  obtain  from  his  limited  supplies  all  the  alcohol  they  wanted, 
they  made  a  mixture  of  alcohol  and  their  own  uriue  in  equal  parts  and 
drank  it  down. 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  May,  while  struggling  with  an  at- 
tack of  fever,  I  received  a  visit  from  Gilmoro,  who  brought  me  a  gourd 
of  milk  as  an  expression  of  gratitude  for  saving  him  at  an  opportune 
moment  his  position.  Burning  with  fever,  I  drained  at  one  draught  a 
goblet  full  of  the  foaming  liquid  ere  the  sense  of  taste  could  detect  the 
nauseous  mixture ;  my  stomach,  however,  quickly  rebelled,  and  rejected 
in  violent  retching  the  unsavory  potion,  seven  eighths  of  which  were 
simply  the  urine  of  the  cow  !  —  a  practice,  by  the  by,  common  to  all 
Central  Africans,  who  never  drink  milk  unless  thus  mixed." 

"  This  fetish  and  superstition  thereby  insures  protection  for  the  cow 
here,  as  on  the  Bahr-el  Abiad,  mysteriously  connected  with  the  un- 
known, —  a  shadow  possibly  of  the  old  Egyptian  worship."  —  ("  Central 
Africa,"  Chaille  Long,  New  York,  1877,  p.  70.) 

URINE    IN    BREAD-MAKING. 

A  comparatively  late  writer  says  of  the  Moquis  of  Arizona  :  "  They 
are  not  as  clean  in  their  housekeeping  as  the  Navajoes,  and  it  is  hinted 
that  they  sometimes  mix  their  meal  with  chamber-lye  for  these  festive 
occasions  ;  but  I  did  not  know  that  until  I  talked  with  Mormons  who 
visited  them"  (J.  H.  Beadle,  "  Western  Wilds,"  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  1878, 
p.  279). 

Beadle  lived  and  ate  with  the  Moquis  for  a  number  of  days.  This 
story,  coming  from  the  Mormons,  may  refer  to  some  imperfectly  under- 
stood ceremonial. 

There  is  some  ground  for  suspecting  that  urine  may  have  been  em- 
ployed by  bakers  in  Europe  prior  to  the  introduction  of  the  "  barm  " 
or  ale  yeast  as  a  ferment.  Ammonia  is  at  the  present  time  made  use 
of  by  the  Germans  in  this  industry  (see  page  32). 

It  is  possible  that  the  following  account  of  the  manner  of  eating 
blubber  among  the  Patagonians  may  mean  that  urine  was  poured  over 
it :  "  He  put  the  same  piece  on  the  fire  again,  and  after  an  addition  to 
it  too  offensive  to  mention,  again  sucked  it"  ("  Voyage  of  the  Adven- 
ture and  Beagle,"  London,  1839,  vol.  i.  p.  343). 


40  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

As  bearing  upon  the  ingestion  of  human  excreta,  which  would 
seem  to  excite  a  natural  feeling  of  revulsion,  the  following  statement 
may  have  some  significance  :  Spencer  Saint  John,  in  his  "  Life  in  the 
J^ar  East,"  London,  1842,  after  describing  a  head  feast  among  the 
Dyaks,  says  that,  after  certain  preliminary  rites  and  amusements, 
"  they  commence  eating  and  drinking  ...  an  extraordinary  accumu- 
lation, —  fowls  roasted  with  their  feathers  on,  eggs  black  with  age, 
decayed  fruit,  rice  of  all  colors  and  kinds,  strong-smelling  fish  almost 
approaching  a  state  of  rottenness,  and  their  drink  having  the  appear- 
ance and  thickness  of  curds,  in  which  they  mix  pepper  and  other  ingredi- 
ents. It  has  a  sickening  effect  upon  them,  and  they  swallow  it  more 
as  a  duty  than  because  they  relish  it." 

Evidently  uastiness  is  an  object,  since  "  before  they  have  added  any 
extraneous  matter  "  this  drink  "  is  not  unpleasant,  having  something 
the  taste  of  spruce-beer  "  (p.  66). 

If  the  ceremony  in  question  partakes  of  the  nature  of  a  sacrifice,  — 
which  is  not  at  all  certain  from  the  text,  in  which  it  is  described  as  an 
"  entertaiument,"  but  which  appears  probable  from  its  being  connected 
with  the  organization  and  representation  of  the  tribe  and  from  its  rela- 
tion to  head-huuting,  —  then  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  spoiled  food 
and  nauseous  drink  are  perfectly  natural  features,  which  have  their 
counterparts  in  many  places. 

As  a  rule,  the  more  painful,  costly,  unnatural,  and  disgusting  a  rite 
is,  the  more  essentially  sacrificial  is  its  character,  —  for  obvious 
reasons. 

Von  Stralenburg  says  of  the  Koraks  that  they  use  the  same  tubs  as 
urinals  and  for  the  purpose  of  holding  drinking  water  (see  citation  on 
page  152  of  this  volume). 

HUMAN   ORDURE   EATEN    BY    EAST   INDIAN    FANATICS. 

Speaking  of  the  remnants  of  the  Hindu  sect  of  the  Aghozis,  an  Eng- 
lish writer  observes :  — 

"  In  proof  of  their  indifference  to  worldly  objects  they  eat  and  drink 
whatever  is  given  to  them,  even  ordure  and  carrion.  They  smear  their 
bodies  also  with  excrement,  and  carry  it  about  with  them  in  a  wooden 
cup,  or  skull,  either  to  swallow  it,  if  by  so  doing  they  can  get  a  few  pice, 
or  to  throw  it  upon  the  persons  or  into  the  houses  of  those  who  refuse 
to  comply  with  their  demands."  —  ("  Religious  Sects  of  the  Hindus," 
in  "  Asiatic  Researches,"  vol.  xvii.  p.  205,  Calcutta,  India,  1832.) 


URINE  IN  HUMAN   FOOD.  ,41 

Another  writer  confirms  the  above.  The  Abbe  Dubois  says  that  the 
Gurus,  or  Indian  priests,  sometimes,  as  a  mark  of  favor,  present  to 
their  disciples  "the  water  in  which  they  had  washed  their  feet,  which 
is  preserved  and  sometimes  drunk  by  those  who  receive  it"  (Dubois, 
"  People  of  India,''  London,  1817,  p.  64).  This  practice,  he  tells  us, 
is  general  among  the  sectaries  of  Siva,  and  is  not  uncommon  with  many 
of  the  Vishnuites  in  regard  to  their  vashtuma.  "  Neither  is  it  the  most 
disgusting  of  the  practices  that  prevail  in  tliat  sect  of  fanatics,  as  they 
are  under  the  reproach  of  eating  as  a  hallowed  morsel  the  very  ordure 
that  proceeds  from  their  Gurus,  and  swallowing  the  water  with  which 
they  have  rinsed  their  mouths  or  washed  their  faces,  with  many  other 
practices  equally  revolting  to  nature  "  (idem,  p.  71). 

Again,  on  page  331,  Dubois  alludes  to  the  Gymnosophists  "or 
naked  Samyasis  of  India  .  .  .  eating  human  excrement,  without  show- 
ing the  slightest  symptom  of  disgust." 

As  bearing  not  unremotely  upon  this  point,  the  author  wishes  to  say 
that  in  his  personal  notes  and  memoranda  can  be  found  references  to 
one  of  the  medicine-men  of  the  Sioux  who  assured  his  admirers  that 
everything  about  him  was  "  medicine,"  even  his  excrement,  which 
could  be  transmuted  into  copper  cartridges. 

"  I  was  informed  that  vast  numbers  of  Shordrus  drank  the  water  in 
which  a  Brahmin  has  dipped  his  foot,  and  abstain  from  food  in  the 
morning  till  this  ceremony  be  over.  Some  persons  do  this  every 
day.  .  .  .  Persons  may  be  seen  carrying  a  small  quantity  of  water  in  a 
cup  and  entreating  the  first  Brahmin  they  see  to  put  his  toe  in  it.  .  .  . 
Some  persons  keep  water  thus  sanctified  in  their  houses." —  (Ward, 
quoted  by  Southey  in  his  "  Commonplace  Book,"  London,  1849,  2d 
series,  p.  521.) 


42  SCATALOGIC    RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 


VIII. 

THE  ORDUEE  OF  THE  GRAND  LAMA  OF  THIBET. 

^f^HAT  the  same  disgusting  veneration  was  accorded  the  person  of 
-*-  the  Grand  Lama  of  Thibet,  was  once  generally  believed.  Malte- 
brun  asserts  it  in  'positive  terms :  "  It  is  a  certain  fact  that  the  refuse 
excreted  from  his  body  is  collected  with  sacred  solicitude,  to  be  em- 
ployed as  amulets  and  infallible  antidotes  to  disease." 

And,  quoting  from  Pallas,  book  1,  p.  212,  he  adds  :  "II  est  hors  de 
doute  que  le  coutenu  de  sa  chaise  percee  est  devotement  recueilli ;  les 
parties  solides  sont  distributes  comme  des  amulettes  qu'on  porte  au 
cou  ;  le  liquide  est  pris  interieurement  comme  une  medecine  infailli- 
ble."  —  (Maltebrun,  Universal  Geography,  article  "  Thibet,"  vol.  ii. 
lib.  45,  American  edition,  Philadelphia,  1832.) 

The  Abbe  Hue  denies  this  assertion  :  "  The  Tale  Lama  is  venerated 
by  the  Thibetans  and  the  Mongols  like  a  divinity.  The  influence  he 
exercises  over  the  Buddhist  population  is  truly  astonishing ;  but  still 
it  is  going  too  far  to  say  that  his  excrements  are  carefully  collected 
and  made  into  amulets,  which  devotees  inclose  in  pouches  and  carry 
around  their  necks."  —  (Hue,  "  Travels  in  Tartary,  Thibet,  and 
China,"  London,  1849,  vol.  ii.  p.  198.) 

BUG   AND   DUBOIS   COMPARED. 

Hue  was  a  keen  and  observing  traveller ;  he  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  languages  and  customs  of  the  Mongolians ;  his  tour  into 
Thibet  was  replete  with  incident,  and  his  narrative  never  flags  in 
interest.  Still,  in  Thibet  he  was  only  a  traveller ;  the  upper  classes 
of  the  Buddhist  priesthood  looked  upon  him  with  suspicion.  The 
lower  orders  of  priesthood  and  people  did  seem  to  consider  him  as  a 
Lama  from  the  far  East,  but  he  did  not  succeed  in  gaining  the  confi- 
dence of  the  Thibetans  to  the  extent  possessed  by  Dubois  among  the 
Brahniinical  sects.  The  history  of  tlie  latter  author  is  a  peculiar  one  : 
A  French  priest,  driven  from  his  native  land  by  the  excesses  of  the 


THE  OKDURE  OF  THE  GRAND  LAMA  OF  THIBET.       43 

revolution,  he  took  refuge  in  India,  devoting  himself  for  nearly  twenty 
years  to  missionary  labor  among  the  people,  with  whom  he  became  8o 
thoroughly  identified  that  when  his  notes  appeared  they  were  pub- 
lished at  the  expense  of  the  British  East  India  Company,  and  dis- 
tributed among  its  ofl&cials  as  a  text-book. 

While  it  is  possible  to  consult  earlier  authorities,  the  determination 
of  this  matter  should  not  be  allowed  to  remain  in  controversy.  The 
first  Europeans  known  to  have  penetrated  to  Thibet  (or  Barantola,  as 
they  called  it)  were  the  Jesuits  Grueber  and  Dorville,  who,  returning 
from  China  to  Europe,  walked  through  Thibet,  and  down  through 
India  to  the  sea-coast.  This  was  in  1661 3  another  member  of  the 
same  order.  Father  Andrade,  claimed  to  have  succeeded  in  the  same 
perilous  undertaking  at  an  earlier  date  (1621),  but  the  names  of  the 
cities  he  visited  proves  that  he  did  not  get  beyond  what  is  now  known 
as  Afghanistan,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  bordering  on  Thibet. 
While  Grueber  and  Dorville  wei-e  making  their  journey,  or  not  many 
years  after.  Father  Gerbillon,  also  a  Jesuit,  had  taken  up  his  abode 
among  the  nomadic  Tartars,  acquiring  an  influence  with  them  of 
which  the  Emperor  of  China  was  glad  to  avail  himself  in  emergencies. 
Xone  of  these  travellers  claimed  to  have  seen  the  Grand  Lama  in 
person. 

"  Grueber  assures  us  that  the  grandees  of  the  kingdom  are  very 
anxious  to  procure  the  excrements  of  this  divinity  (i.  e.,  the  Grand 
Lama),  which  they  usually  wear  about  their  necks  as  relics.  In  an- 
other place  he  says  that  the  Lamas  make  a  great  advantage  by  the 
large  presents  they  receive  for  helping  the  grandees  to  some  of  his 
excrements,  or  urine ;  for,  by  wearing  the  first  about  their  necks,  and 
mixing  the  latter  with  their  victuals,  they  imagine  themselves  to  be 
secure  against  all  bodily  infirmities.  In  confirmation  of  this,  Ger- 
billon informs  us  that  the  Mongols  wear  his  excrements,  pulverized,  in 
little  bags  about  their  necks,  as  precious  relics,  capable  of  preserving 
them  from  all  misfortunes,  and  cui'ing  them  of  all  sorts  of  distempers. 
When  this  Jesuit  was  on  his  second  journey  into  Western  Tartary,  a 
deputy  from  one  of  the  principal  lamas  offered  the  emperor's  uncle  a 
certain  powder,  contained  in  a  little  packet  of  very  white  paper,  neatly 
wrapped  up  in  a  scarf  of  very  white  taffety ;  but  that  priuce  told  him 
that  as  it  was  not  the  custom  of  the  Manchews  to  make  use  of  such 
things,  he  durst  not  receive  it.  The  author  took  this  powder  to  be 
either  some  of  the  Great  Lama's  excrements,  or  the  ashes  of  some- 
thing that  had  been  used  by  him."  —  ("A  Description  of  Thibet," 


44  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

in  Piukerton's  "Voyages   and   Travels,"  London,   181-1,  vol.   vii.   p. 
659). 

"Grueber,  in  his  late  account  of  his  return  from  China,  a.  d.  1661, 
by  way  of  Lassa,  or  Barantola,  as  Kircher  calls  it  (see  Kircher,  China 
lUustrata,  part  ii.  c.  1),  but  Grueber  himself  Barantaka  (where,  he 
saith,  no  Christian  hath  never  been).  .  .  above  all,  he  wondered  at 
their  pope  (the  Grand  Lama  of  Thibet),  to  whom  they  give  divine 
honors,  and  worship  his  very  excrements,  and  put  them  up  in  golden 
boxes,  as  a  most  excellent  remedy  against  all  mischiefs."  —  (Stilling- 
Heet,  "  Defence  of  Discourse  concerning  Idolatry  in  Church  of  Rome," 
London,  1676,  pp.  116-120,  quuted  by  H.  T.  Buckle,  in  his  "Com- 
monplace Book,"  p.  79,  vol.  ii.  of  his  Works,  London,  1872). 

Turner,  "  Embassy  to  Thibet,"  London,  1806,  makes  no  reference  to 
the  use  of  the  excrements  of  the  Grand  Lama. 

Friar  Odoric,  of  Pordenone,  visited  L'hassa,  Thibet,  between  a.  d. 
1316  and  1330  (see  Markham's  edition  of  Bogle's  "  Thibet,"  London, 
1879,  p.  46).  Markham  believes  that  the  Jesuit  Antonio  Andrada, 
"in  1624,"  whom  he  styles  "  an  undaunted  missionary,"  "found  his 
way  over  the  lofty  passes  to  Rudok,"  "  climbed  the  terrific  passes 
to  the  source  of  the  Ganges,  and  eventually,  after  fearful  sufferings, 
reached  the  shores  of  the  sacred  lake  of  Mansorewar,  the  source  of 
the  Sutlej."  —  (Introduction  to  Bogle's  "  Thibet,"  London,  1879). 

Wan-en  Hastings  speaks  of  the  Thibetan  priests  of  high  degree, 
the  " Ku-tchuck-tus,"  who,  he  says,  "admit  a  superiority  in  the  Dalai 
I^ama,  so  that  his  excrements  are  sold  as  charms,  at  great  price,  among 
all  the  Tartar  tribes  of  this  religion."  —  ("  Memorandum  on  Thibet," 
accompanying  the  instructions  to  Mr.  Bogle,  the  first  English  em- 
bassador to  that  country.  See  in  Markham's  "  Thibet,"  London, 
1879,  p.  11.) 

It  is  truly  remarkable  that  neither  in  the  report  nor  letters  of 
Bogle,  nor  in  the  notes  of  Manning,  nor  in  the  fragments  of  Grueber, 
Desideri,  nor  Horace  Delia  Penna,  preserved  in  Markham's  "  Thibet," 
can  any  allusion  be  found  to  the  use  of  the  excrements  of  the  Grand 
Lama  in  religion  or  medicine. 

*'  Les  grands  du  royaume  "  (i.  e.,  of  Barantola),  "  recherchent  fort 
les  excrements  de  cette  divinitc"  (i.  e.,  Lamacongiu).  "lis  les  por- 
tent ordinairement  a  leur  col  comme  des  reliques."  —  ("  Voyage  de  P. 
Grueber  k  Chine,''  taken  from  Conversations  with  P.  Grueber.  See, 
in  Thevenot,  vol.  ii.,  *'Pielations  de  Divers  Voyages  curieux,"  Mel- 
chisidec  Thevenot,  Paris,  1696,  vol.  ii.). 


THE  ORDUKE  OF  THE  GRAND  LAMA  OF  THIBET.       4u 

Several  authorities  from  whom  much  was  expected  are  absolutely 
silent. 

No  mention  is  to  be  found  in  Rubruquis  of  any  use  of  human  ordure 
or  urine  among  the  Tartars  among  whom  he  travelled  ;  all  that  he  says 
is  that  they  baked  their  bread  on  cow-dung.  This  monk,  a  Franciscan, 
was  sent  by  King  Louis  IX.  (Saint  Louis),  of  France,  on  a  mission  to 
the  Grand  Khan  of  Tartary  in  1253,  in  the  execution  of  which  office 
he  travelled  for  thousands  of  miles  through  their  territory.  In  Pin- 
kerton  it  is  said  :  *'  The  travels  of  Rubruquis  are  equally  astonishing 
in  whatever  light  they  are  considered.  Take  them  with  respect  to 
length,  and  they  extend  upwards  of  five  thousand  miles  one  way  and 
nearly  six  thousand  another.''  —  (Vol.  vii.  p.  9G.) 

'  During  such  a  long  journey  he  should  have  been  able  to  notice 
much,  but  we  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  manners  of  the  Tartars  of 
the  Grand  Khan  were  at  that  time  somewhat  modified  by  contact  with 
European  civilization,  having  among  them  many  prisoners,  as  Rubru- 
quis points  out,  who  officiated  as  artificers,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  know  that  the  monk  was  thoroughly  ignorant  of  all  their  dialects. 
Marco  Polo,  who  lived  among  the  Tartars  about  the  same  time,  says : 
"But  now  the  Tartars  are  mixed  and  confounded,  and  so  are  their 
fashions."  —  (Marco  Polo,  "Travels,"  in  Pinkerton's  "Voyages,"  Lou- 
don, 1814,  vol.  vii.  p.  124.) 

Du  Halde,  although  he  gives  an  account  of  Thibet  in  his  fourth  vol- 
ume, and  seems  to  be  familiar  with  all  the  works  on  that  country, 
mentioning  Fathers  Grueber  and  Dorville,  yet  makes  no  allusion  to 
the  use  of  the  excrements  of  the  Grand  Lama  as  amulets  or  internally. 
(See  Du  Halde's  "  History  of  China,"  London,  1736.)  The  fault  may 
lie  with  his  translator  in  his  zeal  to  "expurgate." 

Du  Halde,  a  Jesuit  missionary,  had  the  assistance  of  all  the  mem- 
bers of  his  order  on  duty  in  China ;  no  less  than  a  score  or  more  aided 
him;  one  of  the  number.  Father  Constancin,  had  a  tour  of  service  in 
the  Flowery  Kingdom,  as  a  missionary,  of  over  thirty-two  consecutive 
years.  During  the  generation  preceding  the  appearance  of  Du  Halde's 
work,  the  Jesuits  had  traversed  China,  Tartary,  and  Thibet.  Taver- 
nier,  whose  oppoi-tunities  for  observation  were  excellent,  asserted  the 
fact  without  ambiguity.  The  excrement  of  the  Grand  Lama  was  care- 
fully collected,  dried,  and  in  various  ways  used  as  a  condiment,  as  a 
snuff,  and  as  a  medicine. 

"  The  Butan  merchants  assured  Tavemier  that  they  strew  his  ordure, 
powdered,  over  their  victuals."  —  (Tavemier,  "Travels,"  vol.  ii.  p.  185. 


46  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Footnote  to  page  559,  vol.  vii.  Pinkerton's  "Voyages  and  Travels," 
London,  1814.) 

*'  Undo  tantis  venerationis  indiciis  ab  omnibus  colitur,  ut  beatum 
ille  se  repntet,  cui  Lamarum  (quod  summis  et  pretiosis  muneribus  eum 
in  finem,  non  sine  magno  eorum  lucro  corrunipere  solent)  benignitate 
aliquid  ex  naturalis  secessus  sordibus  aut  uriua  Magnre  Lama)  obtige- 
rit.  Ex  ejusmodi  enim  collo  portatis,  urina  quoque  cibis  commixta."  — 
(Letter  of  Father  Adam  Schall,  S.  J.,  "Auloe  Sino-Tartaricae  Snpremi 
Concilii  Mandarin  us,"  in  Thevenot,  vol.  ii. ;  Thevenot's  second  volume 
contains  three  short  letters  in  Latin  from  Grueber  to  members  of  his 
order,  but  in  none  is  there  any  mention  made  of  the  ordure  of  the 
Grand  Lama.) 

"  There  is  no  king  in  the  world  more  feared  and  respected  by  his 
subjects  than  the  king  of  Butan ;  being  in  a  manner  adored  by  them. 
.  .  .  The  merchants  assured  Tavernier  that  those  about  the  king  pre- 
serve his  ordure,  dry  it,  and  reduce  it  to  powder  like  snufF;  that  then 
putting  it  into  boxes,  they  go  every  market-day  and  present  it  to  the 
chief  traders  and  farmers,  who,  recompensing  them  for  their  great 
kindness,  carry  it  home  as  a  great  rarity,  and  when  they  feast  their 
friends,  strew  it  upon  their  meat.  The  author  adds  that  two  of  them 
showed  him  their  boxes  with  the  powder  in  them."  —  ("  A  Description 
of  Thibet,"  in  Pinkerton,  London,  1814,  vol.  vii.  5G7.) 

The  expression  "king  of  Butan,"  as  used  by  Tavernier,  means  the 
Grand  I^ama  of  Thibet.  Tavernier's  statement  has  been  accepted  by 
the  most  careful  writers.  "Indorum  nonnullos,  incolas  scilicet  regni 
Boutan  Homerda  seu  excrementis  alvinis  Regis  sui  siccatis  et  pulver- 
isatis  cibos  amicis  et  convivis  suis  appositos  condire,  refert  Johannes 
Baptista  Tavernier,  Itinerar,  Indie,  lib.  3,  cap.  15,  fol.  m.  (Schurig, 
**  Chylologia,"  Dresden,  1725,  p.  775.)  The  same  paragraph  quoted 
in  the  Bibliotheca  Scatalogica,  pages  29,  93,  and  96,  to  which  the 
anonymous  author  adds,  "  et  les  Tartares  et  les  Japoiiais  tenaient  en 
pareille  veneration  la  merde  du  grand  lama  et  du  Dairi." 

Rosinus  Lentilius,  in  the  Ephemeridum  PhA'sico-Medicorum,  Leipsig, 
1694,  speaks  of  the  Grand  Lama  of  Thibet  as  held  in  such  high  venera- 
tion by  the  devotees  of  his  faith  that  his  excrements,  carefully  col- 
lected, dried,  powdered,  and  sold  at  high  prices  by  the  priests,  were 
used  as  a  sternutatory  powder,  to  induce  sneezing,  and  as  a  condiment 
for  their  food,  and  as  a  remedy  for  all  the  graver  forms  of  disease.  He 
quotes  all  this  from  Tavernier,  and  from  Erasmus  Franciscus,  p.  1662. 
There  is  also  another  citation  from  Tavernier,  lib.  4,  cap.  7. 


THE  ORDURE  OF  THE  GRAND  LAMA  OF  THIBET.       47 

"Xec  de  rege  in  Bantam,  et  siimrao  Tangathani  Regiii  Pontifice, 
niagno  Lama,  quos  tanto  in  honore  subditi  habent  ut  merda  eorum 
magno  studio  collectam,  et  in  pulverem  comminutam  (quam  Brach- 
mines  acre  multo  simplicibus  diveudunt)  illi  quidem  scil,  Bouta- 
raenses,  loco  pulvere  nasalis  utantur,  eoque  lautius,  victuri  cibos 
condiant  hi  vero  scil.  Tangat  haui  pro  remedio  longe  presentissimo 
ad  varies  desperatissimosque  morbos  habeant,  aliisque  medicamentis 
admisceant,  per  seepe  memoratum  Taveruier,  Itin.  lib.  3,  cap.  15,  et 
Frauciscus,  loc.  cit.  p.  1G62. 

References  to  "  amulets  "  among  the  peoples  of  Tartary  and  Thibet 
are  made  by  nearly  all  travellers ;  but  few  seem  to  have  considered  it 
worth  while  to  determine  of  what  these  amulets  were  composed. 

Fathers  Grueber  and  Dorville  say  of  the  Kalmuck  Tartar  women, 
"  each  with  a  charm  about  their  necks  to  preserve  them  from  dangers." 
These  may  have  been  ordui'e  amulets  of  the  Grand  Lama. 

In  his  condensation  of  the  travels  into  Thibet  of  Fathers  Grueber 
and  Dorville,  Piukerton  omits  what  they  had  to  say  about  these  amu- 
lets, although  in  another  place,  already  cited,  he  refers  to  it. 

(Burats  of  Siberia.)  "  I  could  observe  no  images  among  them  except 
some  relics  given  them  by  their  priests  which  they  had  from  the  Delay- 
Lama;  these  are  commonly  hung  up  in  a  corner  of  their  tents,  and 
sometimes  about  their  necks,  by  way  of  an  amulet  to  preserve  them 
from  misfortunes."  (Bell,  "Travels  in  Asia,"  with  the  Russian  Em- 
bassy to  China,  in  171 1,  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  vii.  p.  347).  L^ndoubt- 
edly,  these  were  amulets  of  human  ordure,  etc.,  received  from  the 
Grand  Lama. 

(Kalmucks  of  Siberia.)  "Des  pilules  benites  qui  viennent  du  Tibet 
meritent  attention ;  on  les  appelle  Schalir.  Les  pretres  ne  les  donnent 
qu'aux  Kalmouks  riches  ou  de  distinction;  ils  les  portent  toujours  sur 
eux,  et  ils  n'en  font  usage  que  dans  les  maladies  graves  ou  la  mort 
leur  parait  presqu'inevitable.  lis  pr^tendent  que  ces  pilules  servent  a 
distraire  I'ame  des  choses  temporelles,  et  a  la  sanctifier :  elles  sont 
noires  et  de  la  grosseur  d'un  pois.  Je  presumai  qu'elles  renfermaient 
de  I'opium  ou  autre  narcotique ;  mais  on  m'assure  au  contraire  que 
leur  vertu  etait  purgatif."  —  (Voyages  de  Pallas,  Paris,  1793,  vol.  i. 
pp.  567,  568.) 

(Mongolia.)  "When  famous  lamas  die  and  their  bodies  are  burnt, 
little  white  pills  are  reported  as  found  among  the  ashes,  and  sold  for 
large  sums  to  the  devout,  as  being  the  concentrated  virtue  of  the  man 
and  possessing  the  power  of  insuring  a  happy  future  for  him  who 


48  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

swallows  one  near  death.  This  is  quite  common.  I  heard  of  one  man 
who  improved  on  this  by  giving  out  that  these  little  pills  were  in  the 
habit  of  coming  out  through  the  skin  of  various  parts  of  the  body. 
These  pills,  called  Sharil,  met  with  a  ready  sale,  and  then  the  man 
himself  reaped  the  reward  of  his  virtue  and  did  not  allow  all  the  profit 
to  go  to  his  heir." — ("Among  the  Mongols,"  Eev.  James  Gilmour, 
London,  1883,  p.  231.) 

This  writer  says  that  these  sacred  pills  are  white ;  another  one, 
already  noted,  describes  them  as  black,  while  those  obtained  by  the 
author  from  Mr.  W.  W.  Kockhill  are  red. 

Vambcry  instances  one  of  the  holy  men  of  the  Turkomans  who, 
after  reciting  a  number  of  sacred  verses,  "  used  to  place  before  him  a 
cup  of  water  into  which  he  spat  at  the  end  of  each  poem,  and  this  com- 
position .  .  .  was  sold  to  the  best  bidder  as  a  wonder-working  medi- 
cine."—("  Travels  in  Central  Asia,"  New  York,  1865,  p.  272.) 

Such  use  of  the  excrement  of  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  was  indicated 
in  Oriental  literature.  In  the  "Arabian  Nights"  King  Afrida  says  to 
the  Emirs,  among  other  things,  "And  I  purpose  this  night  to  sacre 
you  all  with  the  Holy  Incense."  When  the  Emirs  heard  these  words, 
they  kissed  the  ground  before  him.  Now  the  incense  which  he  desig- 
nated was  the  excrement  of  the  Chief  Patriarch,  the  denier,  the  defiler 
of  the  truth,  and  they  sought  for  it  with  such  instance,  and  they  so 
highly  valued  it,  that  the  high-priests  of  the  Greeks  used  to  send  it 
to  all  the  countries  of  the  Christians  in  silken  wraps,  after  mixing  it 
with  musk  and  ambergris ;  hearing  of  it,  kings  would  pay  a  thousand 
gold  pieces  for  every  dram,  and  they  sent  for  and  sought  it  to  fumi- 
gate brides  withal ;  and  the  Chief  Priests  and  the  Great  Kings  were 
wont  to  use  a  little  of  it  as  a  Collyrium  for  the  eyes,  and  as  a  remedy 
in  sickness  and  colic ;  and  the  Patriarchs  used  to  mix  their  own  skite 
(excrement)  with  it,  for  that  the  skite  of  the  Chief  Patriarch  would 
not  suffice  for  ten  countries." — (Burton's  edition,  vol.  ii.  pp.  222, 
223).  In  Burton's  Index  this  is  called  "Holy  Merde."  Burton  also 
says,  "  The  idea  of  the  Holy  Merde  might  have  been  suggested  by  the 
Hindus ;  see  Mandeville,  of  the  archiprotopapaton  (prelate)  carrying 
ox-dung  and  cow-urine  to  the  king,  who  therewith  anoints  his  face 
and  breast,  etc.  And,  incredible  to  relate,  this  is  still  practised  by  the 
Parsis,  one  of  the  most  progressive  and  sharpest-wittcd  of  the  Asiatic 
races."  —  (Idem.) 

Rochefoucauld  tells  us  that  we  ascribe  to  others  the  faults  of  which 
we  ourselves  would  be  guilty,  had  we  the  opportunity.     The  Arabians 


THE    ORDURE   OF   THE    GRAND   LAMA   OF   TIIIBKT.  49 

no  doubt  were  fully  acquainted  with  just  such  customs ;  possibly,  the 
Greeks  also. 

The  Kalmucks  believe  in  spirits  or  genii  called  "  Bourkans,"  and  in 
a  maleficent  one  known  as  "  Erlik-khan."  They  tell  a  story  of  three 
of  these  "  Bourkans,"  one  of  them  being  Sakya-Muni  :  "  fitant  un 
jour  assis  ensemble,  firent  leurs  prieres  dans  la  plus  grande  ferveur, 
ayant  les  yeux  fermes,  ainsi  que  cela  se  pratique  chez  les  Kalmouks, 
le  genie  infernal  s'approche  d'eux,  et  fit  ses  ordures  dans  la  coupe 
sacr^e  que  les  pretres  ont  devant  eux  lorsqu'ils  font  la  priere.  Des 
que  les  dieux  s'en  ap^rcurent,  ils  tinrent  conseil.  lis  conclurent  que 
s'ils  repandoient  cette  matiere  v^nimeuse  dans  les  airs,  ils  feroient 
perir  tons  les  habitants  de  cet  element ;  et  que  s'ils  la  jetoient  sur 
la  teiTe,  ils  feroient  mourir  tons  les  €tres  vivans  qui  I'occupent.  lis 
resolurent  done,  pour  le  bien  de  I'humanit^,  de  I'avaler.  Sakya-Muni 
eut  pour  sa  part  le  fond  de  la  coupe ;  le  levain  etoit  si  fort  que  son 
visage  devint  tout  bleu.  C'est  la  raison  pour  laquelle  on  lui  peint  la 
figure  en  bleu  dans  les  images ;  ses  idoles  ont  seulement  le  bonnet 
vernisse  en  bleu." —  (Voyages  de  Pallas,  Paris,  1793,  vol.  i.  p.  548). 

This  is  a  lame  explanation,  invented  by  the  Lamas  after  men  had 
become  somewhat  refined,  and  had  begun  to  evince  a  repugnance  to 
these  diabolical  usages.  Compare  with  the  notes  presented  by  Mr. 
W.  W.  Rockhill,  the  Oriental  scholar  and  Thibetan  explorer,  on  p.  37. 

The  following  is  from  a  manuscript  by  Mr.  W.  W.  Eockhill,  entitled 
"The  Lamaist  Ceremony  called  the  Making  of  the  Mani  Pills  :"  — 

"  Certain  indestructible  particles  of  the  bodies  of  the  Buddhas  and 
saints,  as  well  as  certain  other  l:)odily  remains,  have  ever  been  consid- 
ered by  Buddhists  to  enjoy  certain  properties,  such  as  that  of  emitting 
light,  and  of  having  great  curative  properties.  The  travels  of  Huein- 
Tsang  and  of  Fa-lisien  are  filled  with  accounts  of  the  discovery  of 
such  treasures,  and  of  the  supernatural  properties  which  they  pos- 
sessed. Among  Thibetans,  the  first  class  of  these  relics  is  known 
as  'pedung'  (upel-gedung),  the  second  as  *dung-rus*  (gdung-rus). 
They  say  the  pedung  are  minute  globules  found  in  the  bones  of 
Buddhas  and  saints,  that  they  possess  wonderful  brilliancy,  and  that 
sometimes  they  may  be  seen  on  the  exterior  of  some  saintly  person, 
when  they  have  the  appearance  of  brilliant  drops  of  sweat.  Whib 
these  pedung  have  most  potent  curative  properties,  they  become  also 
the  palladium  of  the  locality  fortunate  enough  to  have  them.  By  a 
natural  extension  of  the  idea  of  the  power  of  pedung,  Thibetans  have 
come  to  think  that  if  one  preserves  and  carries  about  on  one's  person 

4 


60  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   AI-L   NATIONS. 

even  a  little  of  the  excrptions,  or  of  the  hair  or  nail-trimmings  of  a 
saint  who  is  known  to  have  pedung,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  Tale- 
Lama,  or  the  Panchan-Rimpoche,  they  will  shield  him  from  gun  or 
sword  wounds,  sickness,  etc.  ;  hence  the  extraordinary  objects  one  so 
often  finds  in  Thibetan  charm-boxes  (Ka-Wo). 

"The  properties  of  pedung  have  also  given  rise  to  another  belief, 
with  which  this  paper  is  more  properly  concerned,  — that  of  manufac- 
turing pills,  to  which  the  god  Shourizog,  at  the  supplication  of  the 
officiating  lamas,  imparts  the  properties  of  his  own  divine  body,  and 
then  imparts  to  them  the  curative  and  protective  properties  of  real 
pedung.  These  pills  are  known  as  niani-rilbu,  or  *  precious  pills,' 
and  are  in  constant  use  as  medicine  among  the  people  of  Thibet  and 
Mongolia.  Large  quantities  of  them  are  also  sent  by  each  tribute- 
bearing  muiion  to  the  Emperor  of  China.  In  Chinese,  they  are  called 
'  Tsu-mu-yas,'  or  *  thih-ma-yao,'  and  must  not  be  confounded  with  a 
liliaceous  i)lant  of  same  name  (Hanbury's  Anemarhena  as^j^hodeloides), 
the  rhizome  of  which  is  used  in  medicine,  and  which  is  also  a  product 
of  Thibet. 

"Perhaps  the  better  name  for  'mani-rilbu'  is  '  tzu-sheng-wan,' 
'  dilated  pills,'  which  I  have  heard  used  for  them  in  Pekin,  as  will  be 
"better  seen  after  reading  the  following  account  of  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  manufactured. 

"  The  greater  part  of  the  account  here  given  of  the  process  of 
making  the  pills  is  taken  from  a  Thibetan  work  containing  a  minute 
account  of  the  ceremony,  together  with  the  prayers  to  be  recited,  etc., 
the  title  of  which  is  'Ceremony  of  Making  Mani  Pills'  (Mani  Piilbu 
grub  gi  choga),  in  seven  leaves. 

"  Verbal  explanations  from  the  lamas  who  explained  the  text  to  me 
are  incorporated  wherever  necessary. 

"  Seven  days  prior  to  the  commencement  of  the  ceremony  the  lama 
who  is  to  conduct  it  and  the  priests  who  are  to  take  part  in  it  com- 
mence to  abstain  from  the  use  of  meat,  spirits,  garlic,  tobacco,  and 
other  articles  of  food  held  impure,  or  which  are  bad-smelling,  and 
during  the  progress  of  the  ceremony,  which  is  twenty-one,  forty-nine, 
or  one  hundred  days  in  length,  none  of  the  above  articles  are  allowed 
in  the  temple,  nor  are  unclean  persous  or  those  who  are  partaking  of 
the  above  prohibited  substances. 

"  The  ceremony  begins  by  making  the  pills,  and  the  process  is  de- 
scribed, in  the  work  mentioned  above,  as  follows :  "  The  Lama,  his 
head  clean-shaved,  and  his  vestments  being  as  they  should  be,  grinds 


THE  ORDURE  OF  THE  GRAND  LAMA  OF  THIBET.       51 

into  fine  flour  some  roasted  grain,  then  mixing  it  with  pure  and  sweet- 
scented  water,  he  makes  the  necessary  amount  of  paste ;  the  pills  are 
then  made  and  coated  over  with  red.  When  all  this  has  been  done,  a 
vase  is  taken  which  is  dry  and  without  any  flaw  or  blemish,  and  which 
is  also  perfectly  clean,  and  in  it  the  pills  are  poured  until  it  is  two- 
thirds  full.  The  vase  is  then  wrapped  in  a  silk  cover,  which  is  tied  on 
with  a  silk  thread,  and  sealed.  The  vase,  after  this,  is  put  on  a 
stand,  in  a  perfectly  upright  position,  and  around  the  latter  are 
arranged  bowls  of  water  and  other  offerings,  two  by  two.  The  most 
revered  image  of  Tug-je-chon-po  (i.  e.,  Shouresig)  which  the  lamasery 
possesses  is  then  clothed  in  its  robes,  and  placed  on  top  of  the  vase ; 
then,  without  shaking  the  vase,  a  dorje  (a  marginal  note  explains  that 
this  is  the  Thunder-bolt  or  Sadjra  of  Indra  :  it  is  in  constant  use  in 
all  the  Lamaist  ceremonies,  and  is  generally  held  in  the  right  hand, 
between  the  thumb  and  index,  while  prayers  are  being  read.  In  the 
left  hand  the  lama  usually  holds  a  bell),  wrapped  in  a  clean  piece  of 
cotton  or  woollen  stuff",  is  tied  to  the  string  around  the  neck  of  the 
vase.  After  an  interval  of  meditation  and  prayer,  offerings  are  made  of 
*  water,  flowers,  incense,  lamps,  perfumes,  food,  etc.,  .  .  .  while  music 
plays.'  Then  the  help  of  the  god  is  invoked  *  to  impart  the  necessary 
virtues  to  the  pills,  ...  for  this  world  is  sunk  in  sin  and  iniquity, 
and  Shouresig  alone  can  help  it,  and  drag  it  out  of  the  mire.'  As  a 
means  thereto  he  is  now  besought,  in  his  great  mercifulness,  to  bless 
these  pills,  so  that  they  may  free  from  the  orb  of  transmigration  those 
who  shall  have  attained  maturity  of  mind,'  to  impart  to  them  by 
absorption  the  peculiar  flavor  of  his  resplendent  person,  so  that  they 
may  become  indistinguishable  from  it,  like  water  poured  into  water, 
etc.,  etc. 

"  This  ceremony,  which  is  a  most  expensive  one,  and  most  trying 
on  the  Lamas,  is  not  at  all  common  in  the  Lamaseries  of  China  or 
Mongolia,  and  is  confined  to  the  larger  one  in  Thibet ;  the  only  one 
at  Pekin,  where  it  is  sometimes  performed,  is  the  Shih-fang-tang,  to 
the  west  of  the  Hsi-huang-tsu,  outside  of  the  north  side  of  the  city." 

The  above  ceremony  describes  a  symbolical  alvine  dejection,  and  the 
most  plausible  explanation  is,  that  the  lamas,  finding  trade  good  and 
the  Buddhist  laity  willing  to  accept  more  "  amulets  "  than  the  Grand 
Lama  was  able,  unaided,  to  supply,  hit  upon  this  truly  miraculous 
mode  of  replenishing  their  stock. 

Mr.  Rockhill  explains  that  the  word  "  pedung,"  used  in  the  above 
description,  means   "remains."     Taking   into   consideration   the  fact 


52  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

that  these  people,  although  remotely,  are  related  to  the  Aryan  stock, 
which  is  the  aucestor  of  the  English,  German,  Irish,  Latin,  and  others, 
from  which  we  spring,  the  meaning,  as  here  given,  is  certainly  not 
without  significance.  "Dung,"  in  our  own  tongue,  means  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  remains,  reliquiae  of  a  certain  kind. 

Webster  traces  the  word  "  dung  "  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  dung,  dyncg, 
dincg,  — excrement ;  Dyngan,  to  dung  ;  N.  H.  German,  dung,  dunger  j 
O.  H.  German,  Tunga  ;  Sw.  Dyuga  ;  Danish,  Dynge  and  Dyngd  ;  Ice- 
landic, Dyngia  and  Dy.  This  shows  it  to  be  essentially  Indo-Germanic 
in  type,  and  fairly  to  be  compared  with  the  words  "  pedung  "  and 
"dung-rus"  of  Mr.  Rockhill's  manuscript. 

In  the  country  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  which  was  the  home  of  Abra- 
ham (Gen.  xi.  2),  there  reigned  a  king,  "the  father  of  Dungi."  The 
exact  meaning  of  the  name  "  Dungi "  has  not  been  made  known.  The 
name  of  the  king  himself,  strangely  enough,  was  "  Urea,"  or  "  Uri,"  — 
it  is  read  both  ways.     His  date  has  been  fixed  at  3,000  years  b.  c. 

The  information  in  preceding  paragraph  was  furnished  by  Prof.  Otis 
T.  Mason,  of  the  National  Museum,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Lenormant  makes  him  out  as  of  high  antiquity,  —  "the  most  an- 
cient of  the  Babylonian  kings,"  "kings  who  can  vie  in  antiquity  with 
the  builders  of  the  Egyptian  pyramids,  —  Dungi,  for  instance."  — 
("Chaldean  Magic,"  p.  333.) 

Smith  ascribes  him  to  the  date  of  at  least  2,000  b.  c.  —  ("  Assyrian 
Discoveries,"  New  York,  1876,  p.  232.) 

Mr.  W.  W.  Rockhill,  for  six  years  secretary  of  the  Legation  of  the 
United  States,  in  Pekin,  is  a  member  of  the  Oriental  Society,  and  a 
scholar  of  the  highest  attainments,  more  particularly  in  all  that  re- 
lates ^to  the  languages,  customs,  and  religions  of  China  and  Thibet,  in 
which  countries  he  has  travelled  extensively. 

The  sacred  pills  presented  by  him  to  the  author  were  enclosed  in  a 
silver  reliquary,  elaborately  chased  and  ornamented  ;  in  size  they  were 
about  as  large  as  quail-shot ;  their  color  was  almost  orange,  or  between 
that  and  an  ochreous  red. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Surgeon-General  John  Moore,  U.  S.  Army, 
they  were  analyzed  by  Dr.  Mew,  U.  S.  Army,  with  the  following 
results :  — 

"April  18,  1889. 

"  I  have  at  length  found  time  to  examine  the  Grand  Lama's  ordure, 
and  write  to  say  that  I  find  nothing  at  all  remarkable  in  it.  He  had 
been  feeding  on  a  farinaceous  diet,  for  I  found  by  the  microscope  a  large 


THE  ORDURE  OF  THE  GRAND  LAMA  OF  THIBET.       53 

amount  of  undigested  starch  in  the  field,  the  presence  of  which  I  veri- 
fied by  the  usual  iodine  test,  which  gave  an  abundant  reaction. 

*'  There  was  also  present  much  cellulose,  or  what  appeared  to  be  cel- 
lulose, from  which  I  infer  that  the  flour  used  (which  was  that  of  wheat) 
was  of  a  coarse  quality,  and  probably  not  made  in  Minnesota. 

"  A  slight  reaction  for  biliary  matter  seemed  to  show  that  there  was 
no  obstruction  of  the  bile  ducts.  These  tests  about  used  up  the  four 
very  small  pills  of  the  Lama's  ordure. 

"  Very  respectfully  and  sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)         "W.  M.  Mew." 


54  SCATALOGIC  EITES  OF  ALL   NATIONS. 


IX. 

THE  STERCOEANISTES. 

'T^HAT  Christian  polemics  have  not  been  entirely  free  from  such 
-*-  ideas  may  be  shown  satisfactorily  to  any  one  having  the  leisure  to 
examine  the  various  phases  of  the  discussion  upon  the  doctrine  of  the 
Eucharist. 

Tiie  word  "  stercoranistes,"  or  "  stercorarians,"  is  not  to  be  found 
in  the  last  edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica ;  but  in  the  edition 
of  1841  the  definition  of  the  word  is  as  follows:  "Stercorarians,  or 
Stercoranistes,  formed  from  stercus,  'dung,'  a  name  which  those  of  the 
Eomish  church  originally  gave  to  such  as  held  that  the  host  was  liable 
to  digestion  and  all  its  consequences,  like  other  food."  This  definition 
was  copied  verbatim  in  Rees's  Cyclopsedia  of  Arts,  Sciences,  and  Litera- 
ture, Philadelphia. 

The  dispute  upon  "  Stercoranisme "  began  in  831,  upon  the  appear- 
ance of  a  theological  treatise  by  a  monk  named  Paschasius  Radbert. — 
(See  the  "  Institutes  of  Ecclesiastical  History,"  John  Lawrence  von 
Mosheim,  translated  by  John  Murdock,  D.D.,  New  Haven,  1832,  vol.  ii. 
p.  104  et  seq.) 

"  The  grossly  sensual  conception  of  the  presence  of  the  Lord's  body 
in  the  sacrament,  according  to  which  that  body  is  eaten,  digested,  and 
evacuated  like  ordinary  food,  is  of  ancient  standing,  though  not  found 
in  Origen,  nor  perhaps  in  Rhabanus  Maurus.  It  certainly  originated 
with  a  class  of  false  teachers  contemporary  with  or  earlier  than  Rha- 
banus Maurus,  whom  Paschasius  Radbert  condemns,  —  'Frivolum  est 
ei'go  in  hoc  mysterio  cogitare  in  stercore  ne  commisceatur  in  digestione 
alterius  cibi"  (De  Corp.  et  Sanguin.  Domin.  cap.  20).  He  does  not, 
however,  apply  the  term  "  Stercoranistes"  to  his  opponents.  Cardinal 
Humbert  is  the  first  to  so  employ  the  word.  This  use  was  in  a  polemic 
against  Nicetas  Pectoratus,  written  in  support  of  Azymitism,  etc. 
From  this  source  the  word  was  adopted  into  common  usage.  —  (Schrockli 
Kirchengesch.  XXIII.  ?  429,  499  ;  Herzog,  Real  Encyclop,  s.  v. ;  Mc- 


THE   STERCORANISTES.  55 

Clintock  and  Strong,  Cyclop,  of  Biblical,  Theological,  and  Ecclesiastical 
Literature,  New  York,  1880;  see  also  Schaff-Herzog,  "  Cyclopajdia  of 
Religious  Knowledge,"  New  York,  1881,  article  "  Stercoranistes.") 

(Stercoranistes.)  (Hist.  Eccles.)  "  Nom  que  quelques  ecrivains  ont 
donne  a  ceux  qui  peusoient  que  les  symboles  eucharistiques  etoient 
sujets  a  la  digestion  et  a  toutes  ses  suites  de  meme  que  les  autres  nour- 
ritures  corporelles.  .  .  .  Ce  mot  est  derive  du  Latin,  '  stercus,'  excre- 
ment. On  ne  convient  pas  generalement  de  I'existence  de  cette  erreur. 
Le  president  Manguin  I'attribue  a  Amalaire,  auteur  du  neuvieme  siecle. 
.  .  .  Et  le  cardinal  Humbert  dans  sa  reponse  a  Nicetas  Pectoratus, 
I'appelle  nettement  stercoraniste,  parceque  celui-ci  pretendoit  que  la 
perception  de  I'hostie  rompoit  le  jeuue.  Enfin,  Alger  attribuc  la  meme 
erreur  aux  Grecs.  Mais  ces  accusations  ne  paroissent  pas  fondees,  car  ; 
.  .  .  Amalaire  propose  a  la  verity  la  question  si  les  especes  eucharis- 
tiques se  consuraeut  comme  les  aliments  ordinaires;  mais,  il  ne  la  de- 
cide pas.  Nicetas  pretend  aussi  que  I'Eucharistique  rompt  le  jeune, 
soit  qu'il  reste  dans  les  especes  quelque  vertu  nutritive,  soit  parce 
qu'apres  avoir  recu  TEucharistique,  on  pent  prendre  autres  aliments  ; 
mais,  il  ne  paroit  pas  avoir  admis  la  consequence  que  lui  impute  le 
Cardinal  Humbert.  II  ne  paroit  pas  non  plus  que  les  autres  Grecs 
soient  tombes  dans  cette  erreur.  S.  Jean  Damascene  les  en  disculpe. 
Mais,  soit  que  le  Stercoranisme  ait  existe  ou  non,  les  protestans  n'en 
peuvent  tirer  aucim  avantage  contre  la  presence  I'eele,  que  cette  erreur 
suppose  plutot  qu'elle  ne  I'ebranle."  —  (Voyez  M.  Wuitass,  traite  de 
I'Eucharistie,  premiere  partie,  quest.  2,  art.  1  ;  p.  416  et  suiv.  Ency- 
clop.  ou  Diction.  Raissou.  des  Sciences,  des  Arts,  et  des  Metiers,  tome 
quinzieme,  Neufchatel,  1765,  art.  "Stercoranistes.") 

"  Si  qui  fuerunt,  fuere  nonnulli  nono  saeculo,  qui  Corpus  Christi 
quod  in  Eucharistia  continetur  secessui,  ac  defectioni  obnoxiura  esse 
putabat  ita  ut  corruptis  speciebus  et  ipsum  Corpus  Christi  corrumpera- 
tur."  — ("Diet,  of  Sects  and  Heresies,"  etc.,  T.  H.  Blunt,  Oxford, 
1874,  where  a  number  of  I'eferences  are  given.) 

"  Stercorantistarum,  nomen  non  sectoe,  sed  convitii  fuit."  —  (Baro- 
nius,  "Aunales,"  Lucca,  1758. 

Stercoranisme.  Stercoranistes.  Stercus.  "Membre  d'une  secte 
qui  soutenait  que  les  especes  de  I'Eucharistie  etaient  digerees  et  trans- 
form^es  en  excrement  comme  les  autres  aliments"  (Encyclop.). 

"  On  a  designe  dans  le  XIX.  siecle  sous  le  nom  de  Stercoranistes,  les 
theologiens  qui  niaient  que  la  substance  du  pain  et  du  vin  fut  chaugee 
dans  I'Eucharistie  au  corps  et  au  sang  de  Jesus  Christ." 


56  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

"Tout  ce  qui  entre  dans  la  bouche,  descend  la  ventre  et  va  au 
retrait." 

••  Pretendirent  que  si  le  corps  et  le  sang  de  Jesus  Christ,  avaient 
pris  la  place  de  la  substance  du  pain  et  du  viu,  ils  devraient  subir  les 
memes  accidents  qui  seraient  arrives  a  cette  substance  si  elle  avait  ete 
recue  par  le  communiuut."  —  (P.  Lerousse,  "  Grand  Dictionnaire  Uni- 
versel,"  Paris,  1875.) 

Brand,  in  his  "  Encyclopcedia  of  Science,  Literature,  and  Art,"  article 
"  Stercoranism,"  says  :  "  A  nickname  which  seems  to  have  been  ap- 
plied in  the  Western  churches  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  to  those 
who  held  the  opinion  that  a  change  took  place  in  the  consecrated  ele- 
ments, so  as  to  render  the  divine  body  subject  to  the  act  of  diges- 
tion." He  refers  to  Mosheim's  *'  Ecclesiastical  History  "  for  a  fuller 
account. 

The  same  ideas  obtained  among  the  illiterate  as  a  matter  of  course. 

The  First  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  of  Jesus  Christ  seems  to  have  been 
received  by  the  Gnostics  of  the  second  century  as  canonical,  and  ac- 
cepted in  the  same  sense  by  Eusebius,  Athanasius,  Chrysostora,  and 
others  of  the  Fathers  and  writers  of  the  Church.  Sozomen  was  told 
by  tra.vellers  in  Egypt  that  they  had  heard  in  that  country  of  the 
miracles  performed  by  the  water  in  which  the  infant  Jesus  had  been 
washed.  According  to  Ahmed  ben  Idris,  this  gospel  was  used  in  parts 
of  the  East  in  common  with  the  other  gospels  ;  while  Ocobius  de  Cas- 
tro asserts  that  in  many  churches  of  Asia  and  Africa  it  was  recited  ex- 
clusively. (See  Introduction  to  the  "  Apocryphal  Kew  Testament," 
William  Hone,  London,  1820.)  But,  on  the  other  hand,  all  the  apoc- 
rypha were  condemned  by  Pop6  Gelasius  in  the  fifth  century ;  and 
this  interdict  was  not  repealed  until  the  time  of  Paul  IV.  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  —  (See  Bunsen,  "  Analecta,"  Hamburg,  1703.) 

In  the  following  extracts  it  will  be  noted  that  the  miracles  recorded 
were  wrought  either  by  the  swaddling-clothes  themselves  or  by  the 
water  in  which  they  had  been  cleansed  ;  and  the  inference  is 
that  the  excreta  of  Christ  were  believed,  as  in  many  other  instances, 
to  have  the  character  of  a  panacea,  as  well  as  generally  miraculous 
properties. 

The  Madonna  gave  one  of  the  swaddling  clothes  of  Christ  to  the 
Wise  Men  of  the  East  who  visited  him  ;  they  took  it  home,  "and  hav- 
ing, according  to  the  custom  of  their  country,  made  a  fire,  they  wor- 
shipped it.  .  .  .  And  casting  the  swaddling  cloth  into  the  fire,  the  fire 
took  it  and  kept  it "  (1  Inf.  iii.  6,  7). 


THE  STERCORANISTES.  57 

We  read  of  the  Finnish  deity  Wainemoinen  that  "  the  sweat  which 
dropped  from  his  body  was  a  bahn  for  all  diseases."  The  very  same 
virtues  were  possessed  by  the  sweat  of  the  Egyptian  god  Ra  ("  Chal- 
dean Magic,"  Lenormant,  p.  247,  quoting  the  Kalewala,  part  2, 
r.  14). 

On  arrival  in  Egypt  after  the  Flight  —  "  When  the  Lady  Saint  Mary 
hud  washed  the  swaddling  clothes  of  the  Lord  Christ  and  hanged  them 
out  to  dry  upon  a  post  ...  a  certain  boy  .  .  .  possessed  with  the 
devil,  took  down  one  of  them  and  put  it  upon  his  head.  And  pres- 
ently the  devils  began  to  come  out  of  his  mouth  and  fly  away  in  the 
shape  of  crows  and  serpents.  And  from  this  time  the  boy  was  healed 
by  the  power  of  the  Lord  Christ."  — (I  Inf.  iv.  15,  16,  17.) 

"  On  the  return  journey  from  Egypt,  Christ  had  healed  by  a  kiss  a 
lady  whom  cursed  Satan  .  .  .  had  leaped  upon  ...  in  the  form  of  a 
serpent.  On  the  mon-ow,  the  same  woman  brought  perfumed  water 
to  wash  the  Lord  Jesus ;  when  she  had  washed  him,  she  preserved  the 
water.  And  there  was  a  girl  whose  body  was  white  with  leprosy,  who 
being  sprinkled  with  this  water  was  instantly  cleansed  from  her  lep- 
rosy."—(1  Inf.  vi.  16,  17). 

There  is  another  example  of  exactly  the  same  kind  in  1  Inf.  vi.  34. 
See,  again,  1  Inf.  ix.  1,  4,  5,  9  ;  x.  2,  3;  xii.  4,  5,  6.  "And  in  Matarea 
the  Lord  Jesus  caused  a  well  to  spring  forth,  in  which  Saint  Mary 
washed  his  coat.  And  a  balsam  is  produced  or  grown  in  that  country 
from  the  sweat  which  ran  down  there  from  the  Lord  Jesus."  —  (Gospel 
of  the  Infancy,  viii. :  "  The  Apocryphal  !New  Testament,"  William 
Hone,  London,  1820,  p.  47.) 

"In  Ireland,  weakly  children  are  taken  to  drink  the  ablution,  that 
is,  the  water  and  wine  with  which  the  chalice  is  rinsed  after  the  priest 
has  taken  the  communion,  —  the  efficacy  arising  from  the  cup  having 
just  before  contained  the  body  of  our  Lord."  (See  "Folk-Medicine," 
Black,  London,  1883,  p.  88.)  The  same  cure  was  also  in  vogue  in  Eng- 
land, and  in  each  case  for  the  whooping-cough. 

This  has  all  the  appearance  of  a  commingling  of  two  separate  streams 
of  thought ;  compare  with  it  the  notes  on  the  expression  from  Juve- 
nal, "  Priapo  ille  bibit  vitreo,"  page  428,  as  well  as  those  in  regard  to 
the  canons  of  Beauvais  on  page  429. 

"  An  ofifshoot  of  the  Khlysti,  known  as  the  "  Shakouni,"  or  Jumpers, 
openly  professed  debauchery  and  libertinism  to  excess  .  .  .  Others  of 
their  rites  are  abject  and  disgusting ;  their  chief  is  the  living  Christ, 
and  their  communion  consists  in  embracing  his  body,  —  ordinary  dis- 


58  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

ciples  may  kiss  his  hand  or  his  foot ;  to  those  of  a  more  fervent  piety, 
he  offers  his  tongue."  —  ("The  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dis- 
sent," Albert  F.  Heard,  New  York  and  London,  1887,  pp.  261- 
262.) 

The  subjoined  extract  is  from  "Mclusine"  (Gaidoz)  Paris,  May  6, 
1888. 

UN    DALAI-LAMA    IRLANDAIS. 

"  A  I'occasion  des  reliques  joumalieres  du  Dalai-Lama  dont  on  fuit 
des  pilules  pour  les  devots,  histoire  que  les  iraprimeurs  de  cette  Revue 
n'avaient  pas  voulu  *  avaler '  (voir  plus  haut,  col.  24)  Mr.  Wh.  Stokes 
nous  a  signale  iin  curieux  passage  des  annales  irlandaises.  Nous  croy- 
ons  interessant  de  le  traduire  ici.  Get  'acte  de  foi '  se  passait  en  Tan 
605,  et  le  heros  en  est  le  roi  Aedh,  surnomme  Uairidhnach.^ 

"  Un  jour  il  passa,  n'etant  encore  que  prince  royale,  par  le  territoire 
d'Othain-Muira ;  il  lava  ses  mains  a  la  riviere  qui  traversa  le  terri- 
toire de  la  ville.  Othain  est  le  nom  de  la  riviere,  et  c'est  de  la  que  la 
ville  a  son  nom.  II  prit  de  I'eau  pour  s'en  laver  la  figure.  Un  de  ses 
gens  I'arreta.  *Roi,  dit-il,  ne  mets  pas  cette  eau  sur  ton  visage.' 
'  Quoi  done  ] '  dit  le  roi.  *  J'ai  honte  de  le  dire,'  dit-il.  *  Quelle  honte 
as-tu  k  dire  la  veritel  dit  le  roi.  *Voici  ce  que  c'est,'  dit-il;  'c'est 
sur  cette  eau  que  se  trouve  le  water-closet  des  clercs.*  '  Est-ce  ici, 
que  vient  le  clerc  lui-meme '  (c'est  h,  dire  le  chef  des  clercs)  '  pour  se 
soulager  ? ' 

"  '  C'est  ici  meme,'  dit  le  page.  '  Non  seulement,'  dit  le  roi, ' je  mettrai 
cette  eau  sur  ma  figure,  mais  j'en  mettrai  datis  ma  bouche,  et  j'en 
boirai '  (et  il  en  but  trois  gorgees) ;  *  car  I'eau  oil  il  se  soulage  vaut  pour 
moi  I'eucharistie.' 

"  Cela  fut  racont^  a  Muira  (le  chef  des  clercs),  et  il  rendit  graces  k 
Dieu  de  ce  que  Aedh  avait  une  semblable  foi ;  et  il  appela  aupres  de 
lui  Aedh  et  il  lui  dit :  '  Cher  fils,  en  recompense  de  ce  respect  que  tu 
as  montr^  a  I'Eglise,  je  te  promets,  en  presence  de  Dieu,  que  tu  ob- 
tiendras  bientot  la  royaut^  d'Irlande,  que  tu  auras  victoire  et  tri- 
omphe  sur  tes  ennemis,  que  tu  ne  mourras  pas  de  mort  subite,'^  que  tu 
recevras  le  corps  de  Christ  de  ma  main,  et  je  prierai  le  Seigneur  pour 
toi,  pour  que  ce  soit  la  vieillesse  qui  t'enleve  de  cette  vie.' 

1  Lit.  "de  la  maladie  froide  ;"  voy.  O'Donovan,  "Annals  of  the  Four  Mastei's," 
note  k  I'annee  601,  t.  1.  p.  228. 

'■*  La  mort  subite  est  regardee  comine  le  plus  grand  malheur,  parce  qu'elle  ne 
laisse  pas  le  temps  de  se  confesser  et  de  recevoir  1' absolution  de  ses  peclies. 


THE   STERCORANISTES.  59 

"  Ce  fut  peu  de  temps  apres  cela  qu  'Aedh  obtint  la  royaut^  d'Irlaude 
et  il  donna  des  terres  fertiles  k  Muira  d'Othain.^ 

"  Comme  le  lecteur  ne  manquera  pas  de  le  remarquer,  c'est  par  edifi- 
cation que  I'amialiste,  clerc  lui-meme,  raconte  cette  histoire.  En  effet, 
elle  fait  houneur  a  la  piete  du  roi  et  elle  prouve  que  'le  respect  montre  a 
I'Eglise  ...  a  obtenu  sa  recompense.'  Ce  qui  vient  des  hommea  de 
Dieu  participe  en  effet  au  caractere  sacre  de  Dicu  qu'ils  reprcsentent. 

"Si  Ton  cherchait  a  etendre  cette  enquete  de  scatologie  hieratique  on 
trouverait  sans  doute  bien  des  crojances  et  des  pratiques  repugnantes 
a  notre  gout  de  civilises,  mais  raisonables  en  un  sens  quand  on  accepte 
le  point  de  depart,  quand  on  ne  condamne  pas  la  logique,  et  surtout 
quand  on  se  rappelle  que  le  dugout  pour  les  rc'sidus  de  la  digestion 
n'est  devenu  instinctif  que  pour  la  vie  civilisee  et  les  habitudes  sociales. 
Les  peuples  qui  ne  se  lavent  pas  doivent  certaineraent  seutir  autrement 
que  nous,  et  meme  ne  pas  sentir  du  tout ;  et  nos  ancetres  de  I'age  des 
cavernes  n'avaient  certainement  I'odorat  plus  difficile.  On  assure  que 
chez  les  Namas,  tribu  hottentote,  le  shaman  qui  celebi-e  un  mariage 
asperge  les  conjoints  de  son  urine.  Cela  remplace  notre  eau  benite. 
Le  shaman  est  en  effet  '  un  homme  de  Dieu,*  par  excellence ;  car, 
lorsqu'il  se  livre  a  ces  dances  desordonnees  qui  sont  une  partie  du 
culte,  on  croit  que  le  dieu  descend  en  lui,  non  en  esprit,  mais  en  realite. 

"  C'est  aussi  le  cas  de  rappeler  un  usage  linguistique  des  habitants  de 
Samoa  dans  la  Polynesie.  Lorsq'une  femme  est  sur  le  point  d'accou- 
cher,  on  adresse  des  prieres  au  dieu  ou  genie  de  la  famille  du  pere  et 
a  celui  de  la  famille  de  la  mere.  Quand  I'enfant  est  ne,  la  mere  de- 
mande  quel  dieu  on  etait  en  train  de  prier  a  ce  moment.  On  en  prend 
soigneusement  note  et  ce  dieu  sera  en  quelque  sorte  le  "  patron  "  de 
I'enfant  pendant  le  reste  de  sa  vie. 

"  Par  respect  pour  ce  dieu,  I'enfant  est  appele  son  excrement  et  pen- 
dant son  enfance  on  I'appelle  reellement,  comme  '  petit-nom,'  '  m 

de  Tongo,'  ou  de  Satitv,  ou  de  tout  autre  dieu,  suivant  le  cas.  La 
formule  est  grossiere,  mais  I'iutention,  sous  une  apparence  tout  mate- 
rielle,  part  d'un  sentiment  de  respect  et  de  piete  a  I'egard  de  la 
divinite. 

The  last  two  paragraphs  of  the  above  are  taken  from  the  work  of 
the  missionary  Turner,  who  lived  for  seventeen  years  in  the  islands  of 

1  O'Donovan,  "Three  Fragments  of  Irish  Annals,"  Dublin,  1860,  pp.  10-12. 
The  bodies  of  Indian  chiefs  in  Venezuela  were  incinerated,  the  ashes  drunk  in  native 
liquor.  "  Tuestanlo,  muelenlo,  y  echado  en  vino  lo  beben  y  esto  esgranhonra.'  — 
Gromara,  "Historia  de  las  Indias,"  p.  203. 


CO  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Polynesia;  they  appear  in  his  "Samoa,"  London,  1884,  p.  79,  But  in 
the  same  book,  issued  under  the  title  "  Polynesia,"  London,  1861,  it 
has  been  expunged. 

The  mother  of  the  King  of  Uganda  invited  Speke  to  visit  her  and 
drink  pombe,  the  native  plantain  wine ;  when  she  happened  to  spill 
some  of  this  the  servants  "  instantly  fought  over  it,  dabbing  their 
noses  on  the  ground,  or  grabbing  it  with  their  hands,  that  not  one 
atom  of  the  queen's  favor  might  be  lost ;  for  everything  must  be 
adored  that  comes  from  royalty,  whether  by  design  or  accident." 
(Speke,  "Nile,"  London,  1863,  voL  ii.  p.  313.)  This  is  the  Grand 
Lama  business  over  again  and  nothing  else. 

The  people  of  Madagascar  have  an  annual  feast  of  the  greatest  solem- 
nity, during  which  no  cattle  are  allowed  to  be  slaughtered  ;  "  which 
means  that  none  can  be  eaten,  as  meat  will  not  keep  twenty-four  hours 
in  Madagascar."  This  festival  is  called  "  The  Queen's  Bath,"  and  is 
arranged  with  much  parade.  "  When  the  water  was  warm  the  queen 
stepped  down  and  entered  the  curtained  space.  In  a  few  moments 
salvos  of  artillery  announced  to  the  people  that  the  queen  was  taking 
her  bath.  In  a  few  minutes  more  she  reappeared,  sumptuously  clothed 
with  jewels.  She  carried  a  horn  filled  with  the  bath-water,  with  which 
she  sprinkled  the  company."  —  (Evening  Star,"  Washington,  D.  C, 
quoting  from  "  Transcript,"  Boston,  Massachusetts.) 

That  the  ruler  of  a  tribe  or  nation  is  in  some  manner  connected  with 
and  representative  of  the  deities  adored  by  the  tribe  or  nation,  is  a  form 
of  man-worship  presenting  its  most  perfect  manifestation  in  the  rever- 
ence accorded  the  Grand  Lama  ;  but  no  part  of  the  world  has  been  free 
from  it,  and  among  our  own  foref^ithers  it  obstinately  held  its  ground 
in  the  opinion  so  long  prevalent  all  over  Europe  that  the  touch  of  the 
king's  hand  would  cure  the  scrofula.  This  remedial  potency  was  also 
ascribed  to  women  in  a  certain  condition. 

"  Scrofulous  sores  were  believed  by  some  to  be  cured  by  the  touch 
of  a  menstruating  woman."  —  (Pliny,  Bohn's  edition,  lib,  28,  cap. 
24.) 

"  The  Hindu  wife  is  in  Paradise  compared  to  the  Hindu  widow.  The 
condition  of  the  wife  is  bad  enough.  As  the  slave  of  her  husband,  she 
eats  after  he  is  through,  and  she  eats  what  is  left.  She  has  no  educa- 
tion to  speak  of,  and  her  only  hope  of  salvation  is  in  him.  She  stands 
while  he  sits  in  the  household  ;  and  she  cannot,  if  she  lives  in  the  inte- 
rior, go  to  the  Ganges  and  bathe  herself  in  the  sacred  water.  I  am 
told  that  in  many  cases  she  considers  it  a  privilege  to  bathe  her  hus- 


THE   STERCORANISTES.  61 

band's  feet  after  he  returns,  and  thinks  that  she  gets  some  absolution 
from  sin  by  drinking  the  water."  —  (Frank  G.  Carpenter,  in  "  World," 
New  York,  June  30,  1889.) 

"  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epirus,  possessed  the  power  of  curing  individuals 
attacked  by  enlarged  spleen  by  simply  pressing  his  right  foot  upon  that 
viscera."  —  ("  The  Physicians  of  the  Middle  Ages,'  T.  C.  Minor,  M.D., 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  1889,  p.  5.  A  translation  of  "  Le  Moyea  Age  MtJdi- 
cale,"  of  Dr.  Edmond  Dupouy.) 


62  SCATALOGIC  EITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 


X. 

THE  BACCHIC  ORGIES  OF  THE  GREEKS. 

^T^HE  Bacchic  orgies  of  the  Greeks,  while  not  strictly  assimilated  to 
-*-      the  ur-orgies,  can  scarcely  be  overlooked  in  this  connection. 

Montfaucon  describes  the  Omophagi  of  the  Greeks  :  "  Les  Omopha- 
gies  ^toient  una  fete  des  Grecs  qui  passoient  la  fureur  Bacchique  ; 
ils  s'entortilloient,  dit  Arnobe,  de  serpens  et  mangeoient  des  entrailles 
de  Cabri  crues,  dont  ils  avaient  la  bouche  toute  ensanglantee  j  cela 
est  exprimee  par  le  nom  Omophage.  Nous  avons  vu  quelquefois  des 
homines  tous  entortillez  de  serpens  et  particulierement  dans  Mithras." 
—  (Montfaucon,  "  L'Antiquite  expliquee,"  tome  2,  book  4,  p.  22.) 

The  references  to  serpent-worship  are  curious,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  such  ophic  rites  still  are  celebrated  among  the  Mokis,  the  next- 
door  neighbors  of  the  Zunis,  and  once  existed  among  the  Zunis  them- 
selves. The  allusion  to  Mithras  would  seem  to  imply  that  these  orgies 
must  have  been  known  to  the  Persians  as  well  as  the  Greeks. 

Bryant,  speaking  of  the  Greek  orgies,  uses  this  language  :  "  Both  in 
the  orgies  of  Bacchus  and  in  the  rites  of  Ceres,  as  well  as  of  other 
deities,  one  part  of  the  mysteries  consisted  in  a  ceremony  {omnphagia), 
at  which  time  they  ate  the  flesh  quite  crude  with  the  blood.  In  Crete, 
at  the  Dionisiaca,  they  used  to  tear  the  flesh  with  their  teeth  from  the 
animal  when  alive." —  (Bryant,  "Mythology,"  London,  1775,  vol.  ii. 
p.  12.) 

And  again,  on  p.  13  :  "The  Msenules  and  Bacchoe  used  to  devour 
the  raw  limbs  of  animals  which  they  had  cut  or  torn  asunder.  .  .  . 
In  the  island  of  Chios  it  was  a  religious  custom  to  tear  a  man  limb 
from  limb,  by  w.ay  of  sacrifice  to  Dionysius.  From  all  which  we  may 
learn  one  sad  truth,  that  there  is  scarce  anything  so  impious  and  un- 
natural as  not,  at  times,  to  have  prevailed."  —  (Idem.) 

Faber  tells  us  that :  "  The  Cretans  had  an  annual  festival  .  .  . 
in  their  frenzy  they  tore  a  living  bull  with  their  teeth,  and  bran- 
dished serpents  in  their  hands." —  (Faber,  "Pagan  Idolatry,"  London, 
1816,  vol  ii.  p.  265.) 


THE  BACCHIC   ORGIES   OF  THE   GREEKS.  63 


BACCHIC   ORGIES   IN    NORTH   AMERICA. 

These  orgies  were  duplicated  among  many  of  the  tribes  of  North 
America.  Paul  Kane  describes  the  inauguration  of  Clca-clach,  a 
Clallum  chief  (northwest  coast  of  British  America)  :  "  He  seized  a 
small  dog  and  began  devouring  it  alive."  He  also  bit  pieces  from  the 
shoulders  of  the  male  by-standers.  —  (See  "  Artist's  Wanderings  in 
North  America,"  London,  1859,  p.  212  ;  also,  the  same  thing  quoted  by 
Herbert  Spencer  in  "  Descriptive  Sociology.") 

Speaking  of  these  ceremonies,  Dr.  Franz  Boas  says  :  "  Members  of 
tribes  practising  the  Hamatsa  ceremonies  show  remarkable  scars  pro- 
duced by  biting.  At  certain  festivals  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Hamatsa  to 
bite  a  piece  of  flesh  out  of  the  arms,  leg,  or  breast  of  a  man."  ("  Report 
on  the  North- Western  Indians  of  Canada,"  in  "  Proceedings  of  the  British 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,"  Newcastle-upon-Tyne 
Meeting,  1889,  p.  12.)  Doctor  Boas  demonstrates  that  the  actions  of 
the  Hamatsa  are  an  example  of  Eitualistic  Cannibalism.  (See  idem, 
p.  55.)  And,  speaking  of  the  secret  societies  observed  among  the 
Indians  of  the  British  northwest  coast,  he  remarks  that  each  has  its 
own  ceremonies.  "  The  Nutlematl  must  be  as  filthy  as  possible."  — 
(Idem,  p.  54.) 

"  Bernardiu  de  Saint  Pierre,  in  his  '  Etudes  de  la  Nattire '  gives  it  as 
his  opinion  that  to  eat  dog's-flesh  is  the  first  step  towards  cannibalism, 
and  certainly,  when  I  enumerate  to  myself  the  peoples  whom  I  visited 
who  actually,  more  or  less,  devoured  human  flesh,  and  find  that  among 
them  dogs  were  invariably  considered  a  delicacy,  I  cannot  but  believe 
that  there  is  some  truth  in  the  hypothesis."  (Schweinfurth,  "  Heart 
of  Africa,"  London,  1872,  vol.  i.  p.  191.)  The  Clallums,  no  doubt,  in 
their  frenzies,  tore  dogs  to  pieces  as  a  substitute  for  the  human  victim 
of  an  earlier  period  in  their  culture. 

Bancroft  describes  like  orgies  among  the  Chimsyans,  of  British  North 
America.  (See  in  "  Native  Eaces  of  the  Pacific  Slope,"  vol.  i.  p.  171.) 
While  the  Nootkas  medicine  men  are  said  to  have  an  orgy  in  which 
"  live  dogs  and  dead  human  bodies  are  seized  and  torn  by  their  teeth  ; 
but,  at  least  in  later  times,  they  seem  not  to  attack  the  living,  and 
their  performances  are  somewhat  less  horrible  and  bloody  than  the 
wild  orgies  of  the  Northern  tribes."  —  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  202.) 

The  Haidahs,  of  the  same  coast,  indulge  in  an  orgy  in  which  the 
performer  "  snatches  up  the  first  dog  he  can  find,  kills  him,  and  tear- 
ing pieces  of  his  flesh,  eats  them."  —  (Dall,  quoting  Dawson,  in  "  Masks 


64  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

and  Labrets,"  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  188G.) 

In  describing  the  six  secret  soldier  societies  or  bands  of  the  Mandans, 
Maximilian,  of  Wied,  calls  attention  to  the  three  leaders  of  one  band, 
who  were  called  dogs,  who  are  "  obliged,  if  any  one  throws  a  piece  of 
meat  into  the  ashes  or  on  the  ground,  saying,  '  There,  dog,  eat,'  to  fall 
upon  it  and  devour  it  raw,  like  dogs  or  beasts  of  prey."  —  (Maximilian, 
Prince  of  Wied,  *' Travels,"  &c.,  Loudon,  1843,  pp.  356,  446.) 

A  further  multiplication  of  references  is  unnecessary.  The  above 
would  appear  to  be  enough  to  establish  the  existence  of  almost  identi- 
cal orgies  in  Europe,  America,  and  Asia  —  orgies  in  which  were  per- 
petuated the  ritualistic  use  of  foods  no  longer  employed  by  the  popu- 
lace, and  possibly  commemorating  a  former  condition  of  cannibalism. 

THE   SACRIFICE    OF   THE    DOG    A   SUBSTITUTION    FOR   HUMAN    SACRIFICE. 

It  would  add  much  to  the  bulk  of  this  chapter  to  show  that  the  dog 
has  almost  invariably  been  employed  as  a  substitute  for  man  in  sacri- 
fice. Other  animals  have  performed  the  same  vicarious  office,  but  none 
to  the  same  extent,  especially  among  the  more  savage  races.  To  the 
American  Indians  and  other  peoples  of  a  corresponding  stage  of  devel- 
opment, the  substitution  presents  no  logical  incongruity.  Their  reli- 
gious conceptions  are  so  strongly  tinged  with  zoolatry  that  the  assign- 
ment of  animals  to  the  role  of  deities  or  of  victims  is  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world  ;  but  their  belief  is  not  limited  to  the  idea  that  the 
animal  is  sacred  ;  it  comprehends,  additionally,  a  settled  appreciation  of 
the  fact  that  lycanthropy  is  possible,  and  that  the  medicine-men  pos- 
sess the  power  of  transforming  men  into  animals  or  animals  into  men. 
Such  a  belief  was  expressed  to  the  writer  in  the  most  forcible  way,  in 
the  village  of  Zufii,  in  1881.  The  Indians  were  engaged  in  some  one 
of  their  countless  dances  and  ceremonies(  and  possibly  not  very  far 
from  the  time  of  the  urine  dance),  when  the  dancers  seized  a  small 
dog  and  tore  it  limb  from  limb,  venting  upon  it  every  torture  that 
savage  spite  and  malignity  could  devise.  The  explanation  given  was 
that  the  hapless  cur  was  a  "  Navajo,"  a  tribe  to  which  the  Zunis 
have  been  spasmodically  hostile  for  generations,  and  from  whose  ranks 
the  fortunes  of  war  must  have  enabled  them  to  drag  an  occasional  cap- 
tive to  be  put  to  the  torture  and  sacrificed. 

Mrs.  Eastman  describes  the  "  Dog  Dance  "  of  the  Sioux,  in  which 
the  dogs  represented  Chippewas,  and  had  their  hearts  eaten  raw  by 
the  Sioux. 


POISONOUS   MUSHIIOOMS   USED  IN   UE-OBGIES.  65 


XL 

POISONOUS  MUSHROOMS   USED   IN   UR-ORGIES. 

^HE  Indians  in  and  around  Cape  Flattery,  on  the  Pacific  coast  of 
-^  British  North  America,  retain  the  urine  dance  in  an  xxnusually 
repulsive  form.  As  was  learned  from  Mr.  Kennard,  U.  S.  Coast  Sur- 
vey, whom  the  writer  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  in  Washington,  D.  C, 
in  1886,  the  medicine  men  distil,  from  potatoes  and  other  ingredients, 
a  vile  liquor,  which  has  an  irritating  and  exciting  effect  upon  the 
kidneys  and  bladder.  Each  one  who  has  partaken  of  this  dish  imme- 
diately urinates  and  passes  the  result  to  his  next  neighbor,  who  drinks. 
The  effect  is  as  above,  and  likewise  a  temporary  insanity  or  delirium, 
during  which  all  sorts  of  mad  capers  are  carried  on.  The  last  man  who 
quaffs  the  poison,  distilled  through  the  persons  of  five  or  six  comrades, 
is  so  completely  overcome  that  he  falls  in  a  dead  stupor. 

Precisely  the  same  use  of  a  poisonous  fungus  has  been  described 
among  the  natives  of  the  Pacific  coast  of  Siberia,  according  to  the 
learned  Dr.  J.  W.  Kingsley  (of  Brome  Hall,  Scole,  England).  Such  a 
rite  is  outlined  by  Schultze.  "  The  Shamans  of  Siberia  drink  a  decoc- 
tion of  toad-stools  or  the  urine  of  those  who  have  become  narcotized  by 
that  plant."  —  (Schultze,  "  Fetichism,"  New  York,  1885,  p.  52.) 

The  Ur-Orgy  of  the  natives  of  Siberia  should  be  found  fully  de- 
scribed by  explorers  in  the  employ  of  the  Russian  Government.  Ap- 
plication was  accordingly  made  by  the  author  to  the  Hon.  Lambert  Tree, 
the  American  Minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  Petersburgh,  who  evinced  a 
warm  interest  in  the  work  of  unearthing  from  the  Imperial  archives 
all  that  bore  upon  the  use  of  the  mushroom  as  a  urino-intoxicant. 
Unfortunately,  the  official  term  of  Mr.  Tree  having  expired,  no  in- 
formation was  obtained  from  him  in  time  for  incorporation  in  these 
pages. 

Acknowledgment  is  due  in  this  connection  to  Mr.  Wurtz,  the  Ameri- 
can Charge  d'Afiaires  at  St.  Petersburgh,  as  well  as  to  his  Excellency 
the   Russian  Minister   of  Public  Instruction,   for   courteous  interest 

5 


66  SCATALOGIC  EITES  OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

manifested  in  the  investigations  made  necessary  by  the  amplification 
of  the  original  pamplilet. 

Conferences  were  also  had  with  his  Excellency  the  Chinese  Minister 
and  with  Dr.  H.  T.  Allen,  Secretary  of  the  Corean  Legation,  in  Wash- 
ington, but  beyond  developing  the  fact  that  in  the  minor  medicine  of 
those  countries  resort  was  still  had  to  excrementitious  curatives,  the 
information  deduced  was  meagre  and  unimportant. 

Dependence  was  therefore  necessarily  placed  upon  the  accounts  of 
American  or  English  explorers  of  undisputed  authority, 

George  Kennau  describes  a  wedding  which  he  saw  in  one  of  the  vil- 
lages of  Kamtchatka  :  "After  the  conclusion  of  the  ceremony  we  re- 
moved to  an  adjacent  tent,  and  were  surprised  as  we  came  out  into  the 
open  air  to  see  three  or  four  Koraks  shouting  and  reeling  in  an  ad- 
vanced stage  of  intoxication,  —  celebrating,  I  suppose,  the  happy  wed- 
ding which  had  just  transpired.  I  knew  that  there  was  not  a  drop  of 
alcoholic  liquor  in  all  Northern  Kamtchatka,  nor,  so  far  as  I  knew, 
anything  from  which  it  could  be  made,  and  it  was  a  mystery  to  me 
how  they  had  succeeded  in  becoming  so  suddenly,  thoroughly,  hope- 
lessly, undeniably  drunk.  Even  Ross  Browne's  beloved  Washoe,  with 
its  '  howling  wilderness '  saloons,  could  not  have  turned  out  more 
creditable  specimens  of  intoxicated  humanity  than  those  before  us. 

"  The  exciting  agent,  whatever  it  might  be,  was  certainly  as  quick 
in  its  operation  and  as  effective  in  its  results  as  any  '  tanglefoot '  or 
'bottled  'lightning'  known  to  modern  civilization. 

"  Upon  inquiry,  we  learned  to  our  astonishment  that  they  had  been 
eating  a  species  of  the  plant  vulgarly  known  as  'toadstool.'  There  is 
a  peculiar  fungus  of  this  class  in  Siberia,  known  to  the  natives  as  '  muk- 
a-rnoor,'  and  as  it  possesses  active  intoxicating  properties,  it  is  used  as 
a  stimulant  by  nearly  all  the  Siberian  tribes. 

"  Taken  in  large  doses,  it  is  a  violent  narcotic  poison,  but  in  small 
doses  it  produces  all  the  effects  of  alcoholic  liquor. 

"  Its  habitual  use,  however,  completely  shatters  the  nervous  system, 
and  its  sale  by  Russian  traders  to  the  natives  has  consequently  been 
made  a  penal  offence  by  the  Russian  law.  In  spite  of  all  prohibitions 
the  trade  is  still  secretly  carried  on,  and  I  have  seen  twenty  dollars' 
worth  of  furs  bought  with  a  single  fungus. 

"  The  Koraks  would  gather  it  for  themselves,  but  it  requires  the 
shelter  of  timber  for  its  growth,  and  is  not  to  be  found  on  the  barren 
steppes  over  which  they  wander ;  so  that  they  are  obliged  for  the  most 
part  to  buy  it  at  enormous  prices  from  the  Russian  traders.     It  may 


POISONOUS   MUSHROOMS   USED   IN   UR-ORGIES.  67 

sound  strangely  to  American  ears,  but  the  invitation  which  a  convivial 
Korak  extends  to  his  passing  friend  is  not  '  Come  in  and  have  a  drink,' 
but  '  Won't  you  come  in  and  take  a  toadstooH  '  —  not  a  very  alluring 
proposal  perhaps  to  a  civilized  toper,  but  one  which  has  a  magical 
effect  upon  a  dissipated  Korak.  As  the  supply  of  these  toadstools  is 
by  no  means  equal  to  the  demand,  Korak  ingenuity  has  been  greatly 
exercised  in  the  endeavor  to  economize  the  precious  stimulant  and 
make  it  go  as  far  as  possible. 

"  Sometimes  in  the  course  of  human  events  it  becomes  imperatively 
necessary  that  a  whole  band  should  get  drunk  together,  and  they  have 
only  one  toadstool  to  do  it  with.  For  a  description  of  the  manner  in 
which  this  band  gets  drunk  collectively  and  individually  upon  one 
fungus,  and  keeps  drunk  for  a  week,  the  curious  reader  is  referred  to 
Goldsmith's  '  A  Citizen  of  the  World,'  Letter  32. 

"  It  is  but  just  to  say,  however,  that  this  horrible  practice  is  almost 
entirely  confined  to  the  settled  Koraks  of  Penzshiuk  Gulf,  —  the 
lowest,  most  degraded  portion  of  the  whole  tribe.  It  may  prevail  to 
a  limited  extent  among  the  wandering  natives,  but  I  never  heard  of 
more  than  one  such  instance  outside  the  Penzshink  Gulf  settlements." 
—  ("Tent  Life  in  Siberia,"  George  Kennan,  New  York  and  London, 
1887,  pp.  202-204.) 

Oliver  Goldsmith  speaks  of  "  a  curious  custom"  among  ''the  Tartars 
of  Koraki.  .  .  .  The  Russians  who  trade  with  them  carry  thither  a 
kind  of  mushroom.  .  .  .  These  mushrooms  the  rich  Tartars  lay  up  in 
large  quantities  for  the  winter;  and  when  a  nobleman  makes  a  mush- 
room feast  all  the  neighbors  around  are  invited.  The  mushrooms  are 
prepared  by  boiling,  by  which  the  water  acquires  an  intoxicating  quali- 
ity,  and  is  a  sort  of  drink  which  the  Tartars  prize  beyond  all  other. 
When  the  nobility  and  ladies  are  assembled,  and  the  ceremonies 
usual  between  people  of  distinction  over,  the  mushroom  bi'oth  goes 
freely  round,  and  they  laugh,  talk  douhle-entendres,  grow  fuddled,  and 
become  excellent  company.  •  The  poorer  sort,  who  love  mushroom 
broth  to  distraction  as  well  as  the  rich,  but  cannot  afford  it  at  first 
hand,  post  themselves  on  these  occasions  round  the  huts  of  the  rich, 
and  watch  the  opportunity  of  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  as  they  come 
down  to  pass  their  liquor,  and  holding  a  wooden  bowl,  catch  the  deli- 
cious fluid,  very  little  altered  by  filtration,  being  still  strongly  tinc- 
tured with  the  intoxicating  quality.  Of  this  they  drink  with  the 
utmost  satisfaction,  and  thus  they  get  as  drunk  and  as  jovial  as  their 
betters. 


G8  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  *  Happy  nobility  !  *  cried  my  companion, '  who  can  fear  no  diminu- 
tion of  respect  unless  seized  with  strangury,  and  who  when  drunk  are 
most  useful !  Though  we  have  not  this  custom  among  us,  I  foresee 
that  if  it  were  introduced,  we  might  have  many  a  toad-eater  in  Eng- 
land ready  to  drink  from  the  wooden  bowl  on  these  occasions,  and  to 
praise  the  flavor  of  his  lordship's  liquor.  As  we  have  different  classes 
of  gentry,  who  knows  but  we  may  see  a  lord  holding  the  bowl  to  the  min- 
ister, a  knight  holding  it  to  his  lordship,  and  a  simple  squire  drinking 
it  double-distilled  from  the  loins  of  knighthood]'"  —  (Oliver  Gold- 
smith, "Letters  from  a  Citizen  of  the  World,"  No.  32.  This  is  based 
upon  Philip  Van  Stralenburgh's  "Histori-Geographical  Description  of 
the  North  and  Eastern  Part  of  Europe  and  Asia,"  London,  1736, 
p.  397.) 

"  The  Amanita  muscaria  possesses  an  intoxicating  property,  and  is 
employed  by  Northern  nations  as  an  iuebriant.  The  following  is  the 
account  of  Langsdorf,  as  given  by  Greville  :  — 

"This  variety  of  Amanita  muscaria  is  used  by  the  inhabitants  of 
the  northeastern  parts  of  Asia  in  the  same  manner  as  wine,  brandy, 
arrack,  opium,  etc.,  is  by  other  nations.  Such  fungi  are  found  most 
plentifully  about  Wischna,  Kamtchatka,  and  Willowa  Derecona,  and 
are  very  abundant  in  some  seasons,  and  scarce  in  others.  They  are 
collected  in  the  hottest  months,  and  hung  up  by  a  string  to  dry  in  the 
air ;  some  dry  themselves  on  the  ground,  and  are  said  to  be  far  more 
narcotic  than  those  artificially  preserved.  Small,  deep-colored  speci- 
mens, deeply  covered  with  warts,  are  also  said  to  be  more  powerful 
than  those  of  a  larger  size  and  paler  color. 

"  The  usual  mode  of  taking  the  fungus  is  to  roll  it  up  like  a  bolus 
and  swallow  it  without  chewing,  which  the  Kamtchkadales  say  wotild 
disorder  the  stomach. 

"It  is  sometimes  eaten  fresh  in  soups  and  sauces,  and  then  loses 
much  of  its  intoxicating  property.  When  steeped  in  the  juice  of  the 
berries  of  the  Vaccinum  nliginosum,  its  effects  are  those  of  a  strong  wine. 
One  large  and  two  small  fungi  are  a  common  dose  to  produce  a  pleasant 
intoxication  for  a  whole  day,  particularly  if  water  be  drunk  after  it, 
which  augments  the  narcotic  principle. 

"  The  desired  eff'ect  comes  in  from  one  to  two  hours  after  taking  the 
fungus.  Giddiness  and  drunkenness  result  in  the  same  manner  as 
from  wine  or  spirits;  cheerful  emotions  of  the  mind  are  first  produced, 
the  countenance  becomes  flushed,  involuntary  words  and  actions  fol- 
low, and  sometimes  at  last  an  entire  loss  of  consciousness.     It  renders 


POISONOUS   MUSHROOMS   USED   IN   UR-ORGIES.  69 

some  remarkably  active,  and  proves  highly  stimulating  to  muscular 
exertion.  By  too  large  a  dose  violent  spasmodic  effects  are  produced. 
So  very  exciting  to  the  nervous  system  in  some  individuals  is  this 
fungus  that  the  effects  are  often  very  ludicrous.  If  a  person  under  its 
influence  wishes  to  step  over  a  straw  or  a  small  stick,  he  takes  a  stride 
or  a  jump  sufficient  to  clear  the  trunk  of  a  tree.  A  talkative  person 
cannot  keep  silence  or  secrets,  and  one  fond  of  music  is  perpetually 
singing. 

"  The  most  singular  effect  of  the  Amanita  is  the  influence  it  possesses 
over  the  urine.  It  is  said  that  from  time  immemorial  the  inhabitants 
have  known  that  the  fungus  imparts  an  intoxicating  quality  to  that 
secretion,  which  continues  for  a  considerable  time  after  taking  it.  For 
instance,  a  man  moderately  intoxicated  to-day  will  by  the  next  morn- 
ing have  slept  himself  sober;  but  (as  is  the  custom)  by  taking  a  cup 
of  his  urine  he  will  be  more  powerfully  intoxicated  than  he  was  the  pre- 
ceding day.  It  is  therefore  not  uncommon  for  confirmed  drunkards  to 
preserve  their  urine  as  a  precious  liquor  against  a  scaixity  of  the 
fungus. 

**  The  intoxicating  property  of  the  urine  is  capable  of  being  propa- 
gated, for  every  one  who  partakes  of  it  has  his  urine  similarly  affected. 
Thus  with  a  very  few  Amanitoe  a  party  of  drunkards  may  keep  uj) 
their  debauch  for  a  week.  Dr.  Langsdorf  mentions  that  by  means  of 
the  second  person  taking  the  urine  of  the  first,  the  third  of  the  second, 
and  so  on,  the  intoxication  may  be  propagated  through  five  individuals." 
—  (English  Cyclop.,  London,  1854,  vol  ii.,  "Natural  History,"  article 
"  Fungi."     London :  Bradbury  and  Evans.) 

"  They  make  feasts  when  one  village  entertains  another,  either  upon 
account  of  a  wedding,  or  having  had  a  plentiful  fishing  or  hunting. 
The  landlords  entertain  their  guests  with  great  bowls  of  oponga,  till 
they  are  all  set  a-vomiting ;  sometimes  they  use  a  liquor  made  of  a 
large  mushroom,  with  which  the  Eussians  kill  flies.  This  they  prepare 
with  the  juice  of  epilobium  or  French  willow.  The  first  symptom  of  a 
man  being  affected  with  this  liquor  is  a  trembling  in  all  his  joints,  and 
in  half  an  hour  he  begms  to  rave  as  if  in  a  fever ;  and  is  either  merry 
or  melancholy  mad  according  to  his  peculiar  constitution.  Some  jump, 
dance,  and  sing ;  others  weep  and  are  in  terrible  agonies,  a  small  hole 
appearing  to  them  as  a  great  pit,  and  a  spoonful  of  water  as  a  lake ; 
but  this  is  to  be  understood  of  those  who  take  it  to  excess ;  for,  taken 
in  small  quantity,  it  raises  their  spirits,  and  makes  them  brisk,  cour- 
ageous, and  cheerful- 


70  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

"  It  is  observed  whenever  they  have  eaten  of  this  plant,  they  main- 
tain that  whatever  foolish  things  they  did,  they  only  obeyed  the  com- 
mands of  the  mushroom ;  however,  the  use  of  it  is  so  dangerous  that 
unless  they  were  well  looked  after,  it  would  be  the  destruction  of  num- 
bers of  them.  The  Kamtchadales  do  not  much  care  to  relate  these 
drunken  frolics,  and  perhaps  the  continual  use  of  it  renders  it  less 
dangerous  to  them.  One  of  our  Cossacks  resolved  to  eat  of  this  mush- 
room in  order  to  surprise  his  comrades,  and  this  he  actually  did ;  but 
it  was  with  great  difficulty  they  preserved  his  life.  Another  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Kamtchatka,  by  the  use  of  this  mushroom,  imagined 
that  he  was  upon  the  brink  of  hell  ready  to  be  thrown  in,  and  that  the 
mushroom  ordered  him  to  fall  on  his  knees  and  make  a  full  confession 
of  all  the  sins  he  could  remember,  which  he  did  before  a  great  num- 
ber of  his  comrades,  to  their  no  small  diversion.  It  is  related  that  a 
soldier  of  the  garrison,  having  eaten  a  little  of  this  mushroom,  walked 
a  great  way  without  any  fatigue ;  but  at  last,  having  taken  too  great  a 
quantity,  he  died. 

"  My  interpreter  drank  some  of  this  juice  without  knowing  of  it,  and 
became  so  mad  that  it  was  with  difficulty  we  kept  him  from  ripping 
open  his  belly,  being,  as  he  said,  ordered  to  do  so  by  the  mushroom. 

"  The  Kamtchadales  and  the  Koreki  eat  of  it  when  they  resolve  to 
murder  anybody ;  and  it  is  in  such  esteem  among  the  Koreki  that  they 
do  not  allow  any  one  that  is  drunk  with  it  to  make  water  upon  the 
ground,  but  they  give  him  a  vessel  to  save  his  urine  in,  which  they 
drink ;  and  it  has  the  same  effect  as  the  mushroom  itself. 

"None  of  this  mushroom  grows  in  their  country,  so  that  they  are 
obliged  to  purchase  it  of  the  Kamtchadales.  Three  or  four  of  them 
are  a  moderate  dose,  but  when  they  want  to  get  drunk  they  take  ten. 
The  women  never  use  it,  so  that  all  their  merriment  consists  in 
jesting,  dancing,  and  singing."  —  ("The  History  of  Kamtchatka  and 
the  Kurile  Islands,"  by  James  Grieve,  M.  D.,  Gloucester,  England, 
1764,  pp.  207-209.) 

"I  do  not  think  that  the  urine  would  keep  very  long,  and  decom- 
position would  destroy  the  Amanitine,  which  I  believe  to  be  the  intoxi- 
cating principle.  If  I  remember  aright,  it  has  been  obtained  as  an 
alkaloid."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Dr.  J.  W.  Kingsley,  Cambridge, 
England,  dated  Aug.  18,  1888.) 

"  If  the  Yakut  was  a  good  and  loving  spouse,  he  would  go  directly 
home  and  eject  the  contents  of  his  stomach  into  a  vessel  of  water, 
which  then  he  placed  out  of  doors  to  cool  and  collect ;  and  from  the 


POISONOUS   MUSHROOMS  USED   IN  UR-ORGIES.  71 

rich,  floating  vomit  his  wife  and  children  would  afterwards  enjoy  a 
hearty  meal.  The  lucky  possessor  of  a  stomach  full  of  Vodki  may,  in 
a  benevolent  mood,  similarly  dispose  of  a  part  of  his  repletion,  minus 
the  water,  and  away  to  the  Eastward,  among  the  Tchuchees,  families 
are  often  regaled  even  to  inebriation  with  the  natural  fluid  discharge 
from  the  bodies  of  fortunate  tipplers.  .  .  .  Saving  the  natives  them- 
selves it  is  their  most  disgusting  institution,  and  if  any  Christian  mis- 
sionary be  earnestly  seeking  a  fresh  field  to  labor  in,  I  can  assure  him 
that  no  soil  is  more  desperately  in  need  of  cultivation  than  the  Tchuchee 
Country."  — ("In  the  Lena  Delta,"  George  W.  Melville,  Chief  Engi- 
neer, U.  S.  Navy,  Boston,  Massachusetts,  1885,  page  318.) 

"  Amanita  muscaria  has  been  employed  as  fly-poison,  whence  its  vul- 
gar name.  M.  Poquet  states  that  climate  does  not  modify  its  poisonous 
qualities.  The  Czar  Alexis  died  from  eating  it,  yet  the  Kamtchatkans 
eat  it,  or  are  said  to  do  so,  as  also  the  Eussians.  In  Siberia,  it  is  used  as 
an  intoxicating  agent.  Cook  says  it  is  taken  as  a  bolus,  and  that  its 
effects  combine  those  produced  by  alcohol  and  haschish.  The  property 
is  imparted  to  the  fluid  secretion  (urine)  of  rendering  it  intoxicating, 
which  property  it  retains  for  a  considerable  time.  A  man,  having 
been  intoxicated  on  one  day  and  slept  himself  sober  the  next,  will,  by 
drinking  this  liquor  to  the  extent  of  about  a  cupful,  become  as  much 
intoxicated  as  he  was  before.  .  .  .  Urine  is  preserved  in  Siberia  to  this 
end.  .  .  .  The  intoxicating  property  may  be  communicated  to  any  person 
who  partakes  ...  to  the  third,  fourth,  and  even  fifth  distillation."  — 
(M.  C.  Cook,  "British  Fungi,"  London,  1882,  pp.  21,  22.) 

Henry  Lamsdell  ("Through  Siberia,"  London,  1882,  vol.  ii.  p.  645) 
describes  the  "fly  agaric."  He  says  that  it  is  used  by  the  Koraks  to 
produce  intoxication.  "  So  powerful  is  the  fungus  that  the  native  who 
eats  it  remains  drunk  for  several  days ;  and  by  a  process  too  disgusting 
to  be  described,  half  a  dozen  individuals  may  be  successively  intoxi- 
cated by  the  effects  of  a  single  mushroom,  each  in  a  less  degree  than 
his  predecessor." 

"  The  Koraks  prepare  the  '  muk-a-moor '  by  steeping  it.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  fortunate  ones  get  thoroughly  intoxicated,  and  imbibe  to 
such  an  extent  that  they  are  forced  to  relieve  themselves  of  the  supei-- 
fluity,  on  which  occasions  the  poorer  people  stand  prepared  with  bowls 
to  catch  the  liquid,  which  they  quaff,  and,  in  turn,  become  intoxicated. 
In  this  manner,  a  whole  settlement  will  sometimes  get  drunk  from 
liquor  consumed  by  one  individual."  —  (Richard  J.  Bush,  "  Reindeer 
Dogs  and  Snow-Shoes,"  London,  no  date,  p.  357.). 


72  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

Salverte  gives  two  pages  to  a  description  of  the  effects  of  the  "  fly 
agaric  "  or  "  raucha-more  "  of  the  Russians ;  he  shows  how  it  leads  men 
to  the  commission  of  murder,  suicide,  and  other  excesses,  but  makes 
no  alhision  to  the  drinking  of  urine,  although  he  quotes  from  Gmelin, 
Krachenninikof  and  Beniowski,  all  of  whom  must  have  had  some  ac- 
(juaintance  with  its  peculiar  properties.  According  to  Salverte  the  use 
of  tliis  fungus  might  well  be  referred  to  the  category  of  Sacred  Intoxi- 
cants. —  (See  "  Philosophy  of  Magic,"  Eusebe  Salverte,  New  York,  1862, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  19,  20.) 

"  Before  the  conquest,  they  seldom  used  anything  for  drink  but 
water,  but  when  they  made  merry  they  drank  water  which  had  stood 
for  some  time  upon  mushrooms  ;  but  of  this  more  hereafter."  —  ("  His- 
tory of  Kamtchatka  and  the  Kurile  Islands,"  James  Grieve,  M.  D., 
Gloucester,  England,  1764,  p.  195.) 

See  previous  citation  from  the  same  author. 

A  mere  reference  to  the  trade  carried  on  by  the  Russians  and  Kamt- 
chadales  with  the  Koruks  in  Agaricus  muscarius  is  to  be  found  in 
"  Langsdorfs  Voyages,"  London,  1814,  vol.  ii.  p.  318.  "  It  is  said  that 
the  sort  of  mushroom  which  they  procure  from  Kamtchadales  is  pre- 
ferred by  them  as  a  means  of  exhilaration  or  intoxication  to  brandy." 
(Idem,  p.  320.)  He  adds:  "Some  remarks  of  mine  upon  this  sub- 
ject will  be  found  in  the  Annals  of  the  Society  for  promoting  the 
Knowledge  of  Natural  History."  —  (Idem,  p.  321.) 

"  The  use  of  the  intoxicating  fungus  in  Siberia,  and  that  of  the  urine 
flavored  by  it,  is  mentioned  in  Steller's  '  History  of  Kamtchatka,' 
which  is,  I  believe,  the  earliest  and  best  authority  in  reference  to  it." 
—  (Personal  letter  from  Hon.  John  S.  Hittell,  San  Francisco,  April 
24,  1888.) 

Although  Grieve's  account  is,  in  the  main,  derived  from  Steller, 
every  effort  was  made  to  find  the  latter  author  and  examine  his  own 
language.  The  copy  belonging  to  the  Library  of  Congress  had  been  mis- 
laid, and  it  was  not  possible  to  find  it;  but  the  extensive  Arctic  Li- 
brary of  General  A.  W.  Greely,  U.  S.  Army,  the  polar  explorer,  was 
most  kindly  placed  at  the  author's  disposal,  and  there  the  long-coveted 
volume  was,  translated  by  Mr.  Bunnemeyer,  to  whom  the  warmest 
acknowledgments  are  due. 

George  William  Steller  was  born  March  10,  1709,  at  Winsheim. 
In  1734,  he  went  to  Russia,  where  he  became  an  adjunct  and  mem- 
ber of  The  Imperial  Academy  of  Sciences.  In  17.58,  he  was  dele- 
gated to  explore  Kamtchatka,  especially  its  natural  history.     After 


POISONOUS   MUSHROOMS   USED   IN   UR-ORGIES.  73 

completing  the  task  and  making  voyages  to  various  other  regions, 
he  attempted  twice  to  return  to  St.  Petersburgh,  but  each  time  re- 
ceived orders  to  return  to  Irkutsk  to  answer  charges  there  brouglit 
.against  him.  He  did  not  reach  Irkutsk  the  second  time,  but  was  frozen 
to  death  while  his  guard  entered  a  way-side  inn,  and  was  buried  at 
Tumen,  in  November,  174G.  The  following  are  his  remarks  about 
poisonous  mushrooms  :  "  Among  the  Champignons,  the  poisonous  toad- 
stool, called  mucha-moor  in  Russian,  is  held  in  greatest  esteem.  At 
the  Russian  ostrag  it  has  long  ago  fallen  into  disfavor,  but  is  used  so 
much  the  more  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Tzil  and  towards  the  Korakian 
boundar3^  This  mushroom  is  dried  and  swallowed  in  large  pieces  with- 
out mastication,  followed  by  large  draughts  of  cold  water.  In  the 
course  of  half  an  hour,  raging  drunkenness  and  strange  hallucina- 
tions result.  The  Korakians  and  Jukagiri  are  still  more  addicted  to 
this  vice,  and  buy  the  fungus  from  the  Russians  whenever  they  can. 
Those  too  poor  to  do  so  collect  the  urine  of  those  under  the  influence 
of  the  drug  and  drink  it,  which  makes  them  equally  as  drunk  and 
raging. 

"  The  urine  is  equally  effective  to  the  fourth  and  fifth  man.  Rein- 
deer frequently  devour  these  mushrooms  with  great  avidity,  becoming 
drunk  and  wild,  and  finally  fall  into  a  deep  sleep.  When  found  in  this 
state,  it  is  not  killed  until  the  effects  of  the  drug  have  passed  away,  as 
otherwise  its  meat  when  eaten  will  cause  the  same  frenzied  intoxica- 
tion as  the  mushroom  itself." 

"The  dance  and  custom  you  describe  as  existing  among  the  Sibe- 
rians I  know  nothing  of.  I  neither  saw  nor  heard  of  it.  I  do  not 
think  there  is  any  of  the  mushroom  species  in  the  Tchuktchi  country. 
The  laud  is  absolutely  barren.  I  lived  in  the  tents  of  that  people  for 
seven  or  eight  months,  and  they  never  paid  any  attention  to  me  as  a 
stranger,  in  the  way  of  hiding  their  customs  fi-om  me.  They  would 
have  their  drumming  and  medicine  performances  before  me,  just  as 
though  I  was  one  of  them.  The  custom  you  allude  to  may  prevail 
among  the  Yukouts  and  Tchuktchi,  nevertheless,  but  I  think  it  more 
probable  that  it  exists  with  the  Northwest  tribes,  such  as  the  Samo- 
ycds  or  Osjaks."  —  (Personal  letter  from  the  Arctic  explorer,  W.  H. 
Gilder,  author  of  "  Schwatka's  Search,"  etc.,  dated  New  York, 
Oct.   15,   1889.) 

"Captain  Healey,  of  the  revenue  cutter  'Bear,'  brought  to  this 
place,  last  autumn,  a  shipwrecked  seaman,  who  had  been  rescued  by 
the   Siberian  Tchuktchis,  with  whom  he  remained  some  two  years. 


74  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

He  described  their  mode  of  making  au  intoxicating  liquor  thus  :  in 
the  summer,  mushrooms  or  fungi  were  collected  in  large  quantit}',  and 
eaten  by  a  man  who,  like  our  Indians,  prepared  himself  by  fiisting  for 
the  feast.  After  eating  enormous  quantities  of  the  fungi,  he  vomited 
into  a  receptacle,  and  again  loaded  up,  time  and  again,  and  disgorged 
the  stufi"  in  a  semi-fermented  or  half-digested  condition.  It  was  swal- 
lowed by  those  who  were  waiting  for  the  drink  ;  and  his  urine  was 
also  imbibed,  to  aid  in  producing  a  debauch,  resulting  in  frenzied 
intoxication." —  (Personal  letter  from  Surgeon  B.  J.  D.  Irwin,  U.  S. 
army,  dated  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  April  28,  1888.) 

"  The  seaman,  J.  B.  Vincent,  whom  I  found  with  the  Tchuktchi  last 
summer,  says  that  they  collect  in  their  tents  a  species  of  fungi,  and 
during  their  carnival  season,  corresponding  to  about  our  Christmas 
holidays,  one  man  is  selected,  who  masticates  a  quantity  of  it,  and 
drinks  an  enormous  supply  of  water ;  he  then  gets  into  his  deer's 
team,  and  is  driven  from  camp  to  camp,  repeating  the  mastication  and 
drinking  at  each  camp,  where  his  urine  is  drunk  by  the  people  with 
an  effect  of  intoxication.  The  arrival  of  this  man  is  hailed  with 
much  pomp  and  ceremony  by  the  people.  The  seaman,  Vincent, 
witnessed  several  of  these  ceremonies,  and  was  pressed  to  join  in  the 
orgies,  being  called  '  a  boy,'  when  he  declined  to  sustain  his  part."  — 
(Personal  letter  from  Capt.  M.  A.  Healey,  U.  S.  R.  M.  Steamer 
"Bear,"  dated  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  May  19,  1888.) 

Kamtchadales.  —  "  These  people  formerly  had  no  other  drink  than 
water,  and  to  make  themselves  a  little  lively  they  used  to  drink  an 
infusion  of  mushrooms."  —  ("From  Paris  to  Pekin,"  Meignan,  Lon- 
don, 1885,  p.  281.) 

D'Auteroche,  who  made  a  journey  from  St.  Petersburgh  to  Tobolsk 
in  Siberia,  in  compliance  with  an  invitation  from  the  Empi'ess  Cath- 
erine, in  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  to  observe  the  transit  of 
Venus,  makes  no  mention  of  the  mushroom-orgies  of  the  natives. 
His  work  was  not  of  much  value,  in  an  ethnological  sense,  being 
largely  restricted  to  descriptions  of  the  mineral  resources  of  the  regions 
traversed,  and  only  to  a  slight  degree  attending  to  tlie  ethnology  of 
the  country. 

It  is  strange  that  Maltebrun,  although  familiar  with  Steller,  does 
not  refer  to  the  mushroom  orgy.  He  does  say  of  the  Kamtchadales  : 
"In  summer,  the  women  go  into  the  woods  to  gather  vegetables,  and 
during  this  occupation  they  give  way  to  a  libertine  frenzy  like  that 


I 


POISONOUS   MUSHROOMS   USED   IN   UR-ORGIES.  75 

of  the  ancient  Bacchautes."  —  ("  Universal  Geography,"  American 
edition,  Boston,  Mass.,  1847,  vol.  i.  p.  347,  article  "Siberia.") 

Stanley's  "Congo,"  New  York,  1885,  was  examined  carefully,  but 
no  reference  to  any  use  of  urine  or  ordure  was  found  in  it. 

An  identical  experience  was  had  with  the  "  Voyages "  of  John 
Strays,  ti'anslated  out  of  the  Dutch,  by  John  Morrison,  London,  1G83, 
and  with  Nordjenskold's  Voyages,  translated  by  Horgaard,  London, 
1882. 

As  the  two  latter  travellers  had  entered  Siberia,  it  seemed  probable 
that  they  might  liave  come  upon  traces  of  the  Ur-orgies  of  some  of 
the  wild  tribes  like  the  Koraks,  Tchuktchi,  and  others. 

Salverte's  opinion  that  this  use  of  the  mushroom  may  be  included 
in  the  category  of  Sacred  Intoxicants,  is  shown  to  be  accurate  by 
a  comparison  with  the  statement  made  by  the  shipwrecked  sailor, 
Vincent,  who  undoubtedly  may  be  accepted  as  the  most  competent 
witness  who  has  ever  presented  himself. 

According  to  him,  there  was  a  man  "selected,"  who  "prepared 
himself  by  fasting ;  "  the  "  feast "  took  place  "  during  their  carnival 
season,"  "corresponding  to  about  our  Christmas  holidays"  (i.  e.,  the 
winter  solstice),  and  there  was  much  attendant  "  pomp  and  ceremony." 
Add  to  this  the  statement  made  by  Gi'ieve,  "  they  maintain  that  what- 
ever foolish  things  they  did,  they  only  obeyed  the  commands  of  the 
mushroom,"  and  we  have  the  needed  Personification  to  prove  that 
the  fungus  was  reverenced  as  a  deity,  much  as  on  another  page  will 
be  shown  that  certain  African  tribes  apotheosized  a  member  of  the 
same  vegetable  family. 

If  not  for  Sacred  Intoxication,  then  the  question  may  be  asked,  For 
what  reason  did  the  Siberians  and  others  use  the  poisonous  fungus? 
The  only  answer  possible  is,  that,  in  the  absence  of  the  cereals  and 
under  the  pressure  of  a  desire  for  stimulants,  the  aborigines  resorted 
to  all  kinds  of  vegetable  substances,  as  can  be  shown  to  have  been  the 
case  from  the  history  of  many  nations.  Mythology  is  replete  with 
examples  of  the  occult  virtues  of  plants,  such  as  the  mandrake 
and  many  othei's. 

Certainly,  the  religious  veneration  with  which  they  were  regarded 
was  not  more  fully  deserved  than  by  this  wonderful  toxic,  —  the  Ama- 
nita muscaria.  The  thirst  for  stimulants  has  been  very  generally 
diffused  all  over  the  world ;  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  any 
tribe  has  existed  without  an  occasional  use  of  something  of  the  kind. 

According  to  the  Chinese,  an  alcoholic  liquor  called  "  Tsew "  was 


76  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

invented  by  Etoib,  in  the  reign  of  To-ke,  2197  before  the  Christian 
era.     See  "Chinese  Repository,"  Canton,  1841,  vol.  x.  p.  126. 

Mr.  John  McElhone,  the  stenographer  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives and  a  sciiolar  of  no  mean  attainments,  stated  to  the  author  that 
he  remembered  having  read  in  an  old  volume,  the  name  of  which  he 
could  not  recall,  of  a  feast  given  some  centuries  ago  at  the  coronation 
of  one  of  the  kings  of  Hungary,  at  which  the  nobles  were  regaled 
with  the  rarest  wines,  but  the  plebeians  were  content  to  drink  the 
resulting  urine.  There  may  be  in  Hungary,  whether  we  regard  it  as 
peopled  by  the  Hun-oi,  or,  later,  by  the  Turkish  element,  an  infusion 
of  the  same  race-traits  as  are  to  be  found  at  this  day  in  Kamtchatka 
and  other  portions  of  Siberia. 

Salverte  speaks  of  the  intoxicating  effects  of  the  "  muk-a-moor,"  but 
enters  into  no  particulars.  (See  "  Philosophy  of  Magic,"  Eusebe 
Salverte,  New  York,   1882,  vol.  ii.  p.   19.) 

The  people  of  Kamtchatka  make  intoxicants  out  of  certain  herbs. 
(Steller,  "  Kamtchatka,"  translated  by  ^Ir.  Bunnemeyer.)  And  we 
are  further  told  that,  while  the  people  are  gathering  these  herbs,  much 
jtrostitution  prevails,  and  everywhere  there  are  willing  girls  in  the 
grass. 

"The  settled  Koraks"  of  Kamtchatka,  "  eat  the  intoxicating  Siberian 
toadstool  in  inordinate  quantities  ;  and  this  habit  alone  will  in  time 
debase  and  brutalize  any  body  of  men  to  the  last  degree." —  ("Tent 
Life  in  Siberia,"  George  Kennan,  twelfth  edition,  New  York,  1887, 
p.  233.) 

No  allusion  to  the  use  of  mushrooms  as  an  intoxicant  can  be  found 
in  Sauer,  "Expedition  to  the  North  Parts  of  Russia,"  London,  18C2. 
Henry  Seebohm  ("Siberia  in  Asia,"  London,  1882)  makes  no  mention 
of  the  urine-orgies  of  the  inhabitants. 

THE    MUSHROOM    DRINK    OF    THE    BORGIE   WELL. 

The  following  paragraph  deserves  more  than  a  passing  mention  :  — 
"  The  Borgie  well,  at  Cambuslang,  near  Glasgow,  is  credited  with 
making  mad  those  who  drink  from  it ;  according  to  the  local  rhyme, 

'  A  drink  of  the  Borgie,  a  bite  of  the  weed, 
Sets  a'  tlie  Cam'slang  folk  wrang  in  the  head.' 

The  weed  is  the  weedy  fungi." — ("Folk-Medicine,"  Black,  Loudon, 
1883,  p.  104.) 


POISONOUS   MUSHROOOMS   USED   IN   UR-ORGIES.  77 

Camden  says  that  the  Irish  "  delight  in  lierhs,  .  .  .  especially 
cresses,  mushrooms,  and  roots."  —  ("  Britannia,"  edition  of  London, 
1753,  vol.  ii.  p.  1422.) 

Other  references  to  the  Siberian  fungus  are  inserted  to  afford  stu- 
dents the  fullest  possible  opportunity  to  understand  all  that  was 
available  to  the  author  himself  on  this  point. 

"  AgaricHS  muscarius  is  one  of  the  most  injurious,  yet  it  is  used  as  a 
means  of  intoxication  by  the  Kamtchadales.  One  or  two  of  them  are 
sufficient  to  produce  a  slight  intoxication,  which  is  peculiar  in  its  char- 
acter. It  stimulates  the  muscular  powers  and  greatly  excites  the 
nervous  system,  leading  the  partakers  into  the  most  ridiculous  ex- 
travagances."—  (American  Cyclopaedia,  New  York,  1881,  article 
"  Fungi.") 

Agaricus  muscarius.  "  This  is  the  '  mouche-more  '  of  the  Russians, 
Kamtchadales,  and  Koriars,  who  use  it  for  intoxication.  They  some- 
times eat  it  dry,  and  sometimes  immerse  it  in  a  liquor  made  with  the 
epilobinm,  and  when  they  drink  this  liquor  they  are  seized  with  con- 
vulsions in  all  their  limbs,  followed  by  that  kind  of  raving  which  at- 
tends a  bui'ning  fever.  Tiiey  personify  this  mushroom,  and  if  they 
are  urged  by  its  effects  to  suicide  or  any  dreadful  crime,  they  pretend 
to  obey  its  commands.  To  fit  themselves  for  premeditated  assassina- 
tion they  recur  to  the  use  of  the  '  mouche-more.'  A  powder  of  the 
root,  or  of  that  part  of  the  stem  which  is  covered  by  the  earth,  is  recom- 
mended in  epileptic  cases,  and  externally  applied  for  dissipating  hard, 
globular  swellings  and  for  healing  ulcers."  —  (Cyclopaedia,  Philadelphia, 
no  date,  Samuel  Bradford,  vol.  i.  article  "Agaric") 

'*  One  of  the  most  poisonous  species  of  the  genus  is  the  '  fly  agaric,' 
so  named  because  the  fungus  is  often  steeped  and  the  solution  used  for 
the  destruction  of  the  house-fly.  ...  It  is  as  attractive  and  as 
poisonous  as  it  is  beautiful.  In  Kamtchatka,  it  is  highly  prized  for  its 
poisonous  properties,  producing,  as  it  does,  in  the  eater  a  peculiar  in- 
toxication. The  fungus  is  gathered  and  dried  ;  and  when  a  native 
wishes  to  engage  in  a  debauch,  he  has  but  to  swallow  a  piece,  when  in 
u  few  hours  he  will  be  in  his  glory."  —  (Johnson's  New  Universal  Cyclo- 
paedia, New  York,  1878,  article  "Mushroom.") 

Poisonous  fungi.  "  Several  of  this  natural  order  are  poisonous,  es- 
pecially those  belonging  to  the  genera  Amanita  and  Agaricus.  .  .  . 
The  sufferers  are  often  relieved  by  vomiting."  —  (Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica,  edition  of  1841,  article  "  Medical  Jurisprudence,"  vol.  xiv.  pp.  506, 
507.)     Speaking  of  the  poisonous  fungi,   the  same  authority  says  : 


78  SCATALOGIC   RITES    OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  The  effects  are  singularly  various,  .  .  .  among  them  being  giddiness, 
confusion,  delirium,  stupor,  coma,  and  convulsions."  —  (Idem,  vol.  xviii. 
p.  178,  article  "Poison.") 

"  The  boletus  mentioned  by  Juvenal  on  account  of  the  death  of  the 
Emperor  Claudius."  —  (Cyclopaedia,  Philadelphia,  no  date,  vol.  xxv. 
article  "Mushroom.") 

There  are  several  allusions  to  the  custom  of  poisoning  with  mush- 
rooms to  be  found  in  Juvenal, — for  example,  in  the  first  and  fifth 
satires. 

Tacitus  says  that  when  Claudius  was  poisoned  the  poison  "  was 
poured  into  a  dish  of  mushrooms."  —  ("  Annals,"  Oxford  translation, 
Bohn,  London,  1871,  lib.  12.) 

After  the  Emperor  Claudius  had  been  poisoned  by  mushrooms  given 
by  his  wife  Messalina,  the  Emperor  Nero,  his  successor,  was  wont  to 
call  the  boletus  "  the  food  of  the  gods."  (See  footnote  to  Rev.  Lewis 
Evans's  translation  of  the  sixth  satire  of  Juvenal,  p.  64,  edition  of  New 
York,  1860,  citing  Suetonius's  "  Nero  "  Tacitus's  "Annals,"  and  Mar- 
tial's "Epigrams,"  L  epistle  XXI.) 

Plutarch  says  that  it  was  a  common  opinion  that  "  thimder  engen- 
ders mushrooms." — ("Morals,"  Goodwin's  English  edition,  Boston, 
1870,  vol.  iii.  p.  298.) 

Gilder,  who  crossed  over  Siberia  from  Behring's  Straits  to  St.  Peters- 
burgh,  stopping  en  route  with  many  of  the  wild  tribes,  makes  no  allu- 
sion to  the  use  of  the  "  muck-a-moor "  or  to  any  Ur-orgy.  (See 
"  Ice-pack  and  Tundra,"  New  York,  1883.) 

"The  Agaricus  muscarius  is  used  by  the  natives  of  Kamtchatka 
and  Korea  to  produce  intoxication." — (Lire's  "Dictionary  of  Arts, 
Manufactures,  and  Mines,"  London,  1878,  vol.  ii.  article  "Fungi.") 

"  Their  reputation  as  aphrodisiacs  is  thought  to  be  unfounded, 
having  its  origin  in  the  old  doctrine  of  resemblances."  (American 
Cyclopaedia,  New  York,  1881,  article  "Fungi.")  Probably  from  the 
appearance  of  the  "phallus"  fungus. 

There  seems  to  have  been  some  superstition  attaching  to  the  elder 
dating  from  veiy  remote  times.  It  is  said  in  Gerrard's  "  Herbal," 
Johnson's  edition,  page  1428,  "that  the  arbor  Jiidce  is  thought  to  be 
that  whereon  Judas  hanged  himself,  and  not  upon  the  elder-tree,  as  is 
vulgarly  said."  I  am  clear  that  the  mushrooms  or  excrescences  of  the 
elder-tree,  called  auriculie  Jxidoe  in  Latin,  and  commonly  rendered 
"  Jew's-ears,"  ought  to  be  translated  "  Judas's-ears,"  from  the  popular 
superstition  above  mentioned.     Coles,  in  his  "  Adam  in  Eden,"  speak- 


POISONOUS   MUSHROOMS   USED   IN  UR-ORGIES.  79 

ing  of  "  Jew's-ears,"  says  :  "  It  is  called  in  Latin  Fungus  Samhucinum 
and  Auriculae  Judoe,  some  having  supposed  the  elder-tree  to  be  that 
whereon  Judas  hanged  himself,  and  that  ever  since  these  mushrooms 
like  unto  ears  have  grown  thereon,  which  I  will  not  persuade  you  to 
believe."  In  '*  Paradoxical  Assertions,"  is  a  silly  question,  —  "  why 
Jews  are  said  to  stink  naturally.  Is  it  because  the  '  Jew's  ears'  grow 
on  stinking  elder,  which  tree  the  fox-headed  Judas  was  supposed  to 
have  hanged  himself  on,  so  that  natural  stink  hath  been  entailed  on 
them  and  their  posterity  as  it  were  ex  traduce  ?  The  elder  seems  to 
have  been  given  in  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  as  a  token  of 
disgrace.  It  was  credited  with  the  power  to  cure  epilepsy,  to 
strengthen  the  loins  of  men,  especially  in  riding,  as  it  prevented  all 
gall  and  chafing,  etc.,  and  had  additionally  the  property  of  making 
horses  stale."  —  (Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1872,  vol.  iii. 
p.  283,  article  "  Physical  Charms.") 

Sambucus  (elder)  is  mentioned  by  Frommann  as  a  remedy  for  epi- 
lepsy.—  ("  Tractatus  de  Fascinatione,"  Nuremberg,  1675,  p.  270.) 

Have  we  not  a  right  to  inquire  why  in  primitive  pharmacy  certain 
remedies  were  employed  1  The  principle  of  similia  similibus  is  very 
old  and  deeply  rooted.  Perhaps  the  fungus  of  the  elder  may  have 
once  been  employed  in  inducing  intoxication  and  frenzy. 

"The  Ostiaks,  the  Kamtchadales,  and  other  inhabitants  of  Asiatic 
Russia,  find  in  one  of  the  gild-bearing  family  —  the  Amanita  viuscaria 
—  the  exhilaration  and  madness  that  more  civilized  nations  demand  and 
receive  of  alcohol,  and  enjoy  a  narcotism  from  its  extracts  as  seductive 
as  that  of  opium.  The  Fiji  Islanders  ai'e  indebted  to  toadstools  strung  on 
a  string  for  girdles  which  alone  prevent  them  from  being  classed  among 
the  '  poor  and  naked,'  and  their  sole  sesthetic  occupation  lies  in  orna- 
menting their  limited  wardrobe.  The  Fiji  fishermen  especially  value 
them  highly  because  they  are  water-proof.  Cerdier  tells  us  that  the  ne- 
groes on  the  west  coast  of  Africa  exalt  a  certain  kind  of  boletus  to  the 
sacredness  of  a  god,  and  bow  down  in  worship  before  it ;  for  this  reason 
Afzeltus  has  named  this  variety  boletus  sacer.  A  French  chemist  has 
extracted  wax  from  the  milk-giving  kind,  but  has  not  stated  the  price 
of  candles  made  from  it.  Others  of  the  delving  fraternity  have  shown 
that  toadstools  may  be  used  in  the  manufacture  of  Prussian  blue  in- 
stead of  blood,  for,  like  certain  animal  matter,  they  furnish  prussic 
acid.  As  fungi,  after  the  manner  of  all  animal  life,  breathe  oxygen  and 
throw  off  carbonic  acid  gas,  their  flesh  partakes  of  animal  i-ather  than 
of  vegetable  nature. 


80  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS, 

"  In  their  decomposition  they  are  capital  fertilizers  of  surrounding 
plants,  and  in  seasons  when  they  are  plentiful  it  will  repay  the  agricul- 
turist to  make  use  of  them  as  manure. 

"  According  to  Linnaeus,  the  Lapps  delighted  in  the  perfume  of  some 
species,  and  carried  them  upon  their  persons  so  that  they  might  be  the 
more  attractive.  Linnaeus  exclaims,  '  0  Venus  !  thou  that  scarcely 
sufficest  thyself  in  other  countries  with  jewels,  diamonds,  precious 
stones,  gold,  purple,  music,  and  spectacle,  art  here  satisfied  with  a 
simple  toadstool ! ' 

"A  variety  of  boletus  —  a  tube-bearing  species  —  is  powdered,  and 
used  as  a  protector  of  clothing  against  insects.  The  Agariais  musca- 
rius  constitutes  a  well-known  poison  to  the  common  house-fly.  It 
intoxicates  them  to  such  a  degree  that  they  can  be  swept  up  and  de- 
stroyed. 

"  Certain  polypori  —  those  large,  dry,  corky  growths  found  upon 
logs  and  trees  —  when  properly  seasoned,  sliced,  and  beaten,  engage 
large  manufactories  in  producing  from  them  the  punk  of  commerce, 
used  by  the  surgeon  for  the  arrest  of  hemorrhage,  the  artist  for  his 
shading  stump,  and  the  Fourth  of  July  urchin  for  his  pyrotechnic 
purposes.  A  species  of  polyporus  is  used  in  Italy  as  scrubbing 
brushes.  In  countries  where  fire-producing  is  unknown  or  laborious, 
and  the  luxury  of  lucifers  denied,  the  dried  fungus  enables  the  trans- 
portation of  fire  from  one  place  to  another  over  great  distances. 

"  The  inhabitants  of  Franconia  use  the  hammered  slices  instead  of 
chamois-skin  for  underclothing. 

"Another  polyporus  takes  its  place  among  manufacturers  as  the  highly 
necessary  razor-strop.  Northern  nations  make  bottle-stoppers  of  them, 
as  their  corky  nature  suggests.  The  polyporus  of  the  birch-tree  (  Poli/- 
porus  hetulinns)  increases  the  delight  of  smokers  by  its  delicious  flavor 
when  mixed  with  tobacco."  —  (Lippincott's  Magazine,  Philadelphia, 
Penn.,  1888.) 

Before  going  further  we  are  confronted  with  the  statement  that  the 
African  negroes  bow  down  in  worship  before  a  certain  kind  of  boletus. 
It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  Cerdier  did  not  discover  for  what  toxic 
or  other  property  it  was  thus  apotheosized. 

Similarly,  scholars  cannot  remain  satisfied  with  the  assurance  that 
the  Fiji  Islanders  use  toadstools  for  girdles  only,  or  that  the  Lapps 
carried  other  varieties  upon  their  persons  to  enhance  their  personal 
attractions.  Some  aphrodisiac  potency  is  more  likely  to  have  been 
ascribed  to  them  in  each  case,  which  would  account  for  the  care  dis- 


POISONOUS   MUSHROOMS  USED  IN   UR-ORGIES.  81 

played  in  their  preservation,  and  justify  the  suspicion  that  they  were 
kept  ready  to  hand  as  provocatives  to  lust. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Porter  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  in  one  of  the 
Sagas  mention  is  made  of  a  man  bewitched  by  a  Lapland  witch, 
who  gave  him  an  infusion  of  poisonous  mushroom,  which  set  him 
crazy. 

"  Lichens,"  says  De  Candolle,  "  present  two  classes  of  properties, 
which  are  developed  by  different  agents^  and  especially  by  maceration 
in  urine." —  (Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  vol.  v.  edition  of  1841.) 

There  is  an  example  of  the  employment  of  mushrooms  in  medicine 
for  the  stoppage  of  hemorrhages  of  various  kinds,  which  can  be  traced 
back  to  the  writings  of  Hippocrates.  —  (See  "  Saxon  Leechdoms," 
vol.  iii.  p.   143.) 

"  Some  species  of  mushrooms,  notably  the  Agaricus  volvaceus  con- 
tain sugar,  which  can  be  extracted  in  crystals,  and  is  capable  of  under-- 
going  the  vinous  fermentation."  —  (Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  edition 
of  1841,  vol.  vi.  pp.  473,  474,  article  "Chemistry.") 

No  instance  of  anything  resembling  the  Ur-Orgy  of  the  Siberians 
has  been  described  among  the  Australians,  but  there  is  no  knowing 
what  further  investigation  may  discover  of  the  life  and  mode  of 
thought  of  the  wild  tribes  inhabiting  that  great  continent,  or  island, 
as  the  reader  pleases. 

"  The  Australians  will  not  eat  '  the  common  mushroom,'  although 
they  eat  almost  all  other  kinds  of  fungus."  —  ("The  Native  Tribes  of 
South  Australia,"  Adelaide,  1879,  received  through  the  kindness  of 
the  Royal  Society,  Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  T.  B.  Kyngdou,  Esq., 
Secretary.) 

"  Fungi,  however,  were  used  for  food.  The  native  truffle,  —  '  My- 
iitta  Australis,'  —  a  subterranean  fungus,  —  was  much  sought  after  by 
the  natives.  When  cut,  it  is  in  appearance  somewhat  like  unbaked 
brown  bread.  I  have  seen  large  pieces,  weighing  several  pounds,  and, 
in  some  localities,  occasionally  a  fungus  weighing  fifty  pounds  is 
found."  —  ("Aborigines  of  Victoria,"  A.  Brough  Smyth,  London,  1878, 
voL  i.  p.  209.) 

"  Mushrooms,  called  by  the  Chinese  '  stones'  ears,'  are  gathered  by 
some  for  the  table,  and  form  a  part  of  the  vegetable  diet  of  the 
pi'iests.''— (Chinese  Repository,  Canton,  1835,  vol.  iii.  p.  462.) 

But  why  the  diet  of  priests  particularly  ?  May  there  net  be  some 
mythical  precept  involved  ? 

(Monbottoes  of  Africa.)     "  Mushrooms  are  also  in  common  use  for 

6 


82  SCATALOGIC  RITES  OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

the  preparation  of  their  sauces."  —  (Schweiufurth's  "Heart  of  Africa," 
London,  1878,  vol.  ii.  p.  42.) 

"There  is  a  great  variety  of  mushrooms,  most  of  which  are  eat. 
Some,  indeed,  are  poisonous,  and  unlucky  accidents  happen  fre- 
quently."—  (Kemper,  "History  of  Japan,"  in  "  Pinkerton's  Voyages," 
London,  1814,  vol.  vii.  p.  698.) 

A.  Brough  Smyth,  "Aborigines  of  Australia,"  p.  132,  speaks  of  the 
use  by  the  Australians  of  "  a  dry,  white  species  of  fungus,  to  kindle 
fire  with  rapidly." 

Agaric.  "  It  groweth  in  Fraunce,  principally  upon  trees  that  bear 
mast,  in  manner  of  a  white  mushroom ;  of  a  sweet  savour ;  very  eftec- 
tual  in  Physicke  and  used  in  many  Antidotes  and  sovereigne  confec- 
tions. It  groweth  upon  the  head  and  top  of  trees,  it  shineth  in  the 
night,  and  by  the  light  that  it  giveth  in  the  dark  men  know  when  and 
how  to  gather  it."  —  (Pliny,  lib.  xvi.  cap.  8,  Holland's  translation.) 

"  On  mange  generalement  en  Eussie  toutes  les  especes  de  cham 
pignons  ;  "  but  the  "  champignon  de  mouche,"  and  two  other  kinds,  are 
excepted.  —  (See  "Voyages," Pallas,  Paris,  1793,  vol.  i.  p.  65.) 

"  The  Ostiaks  of  Siberia  make  a  '  moxa '  of  '  un  morceau  d'agaric  du 
bouleau.'  "  —  (Idem,  vol.  iv.  p.  68.) 

Bogle  enumerates  mushrooms  among  the  articles  of  diet  of  the 
Lamas.  —  (See  Markham's  "Thibet,"  London,  1879,  p.  105.) 

"  Mushrooms  and  fungi  of  all  kinds  are  eaten  by  the  Bongo  of  the 
Upper  Nile  region." —  (See  "  Heart  of  Africa,"  Schweinfurth,  London, 
1878,  vol.  i.  pp.  117-122.) 

"The  Niam-Niams  of  Central  Africa  use  fungi  for  foods."  —  (Idem, 
p.  281.) 

In  a  synopsis  of  the  lecture  delivered  by  the  explorer  Stanley  before 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society  in  London,  he  is  represented  as  re- 
ferring to  the  skill  of  the  Niam-Niam  in  woodcraft,  and  the  ability 
with  which  they  detected  the  edible  fungi  from  the  poisonous.  —  (See 
"Tribune,"  Chicago,  111.,  June  28,  1890.) 

Agaric.  Avicenna  believed  that  the  white,  or  "feminine,"  was 
good,  the  black,  or  "  masculine,"  noxious ;  it  was  prescribed  for  epi- 
lepsy, fevers,  sciatica,  asthma,  pulmonary  troubles,  etc.  (Avicenna, 
vol.  i.  p.  278,  improperly  numbered  in  the  book  as  p.  287,  a  10,  et  seq.) 
It  also  entered  into  a  number  of  panaceas,  such  as  "  Theriaca,"  "  Theo- 
doricon  Magnum,"  "  Mithradatum,"  and  others. 

It  was  a  provocative  of  the  menses,  according  to  Avicenna,  vol.  i. 
p.  287,  a  54 


POISONOUS   MUSHROOMS  USED  IN   UR-ORGIES.  83 

Thurnberg  mentions  a  plant  —  "  Bupleorum  giganteum  "  —  found  in 
Cape  Colony,  of  which  clothing  was  made,  and  which  was  also  used 
for  tinder, —  (See  Pinkerton's  Voyages,  London,  1814,  vol.  xvi.  pp.  21, 
22,  quoting  Thurnberg's  "  Account  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.") 

"Toadstool,  or  rotten  fish  and  willow  bark,  which  are  delicacies 
among  the  Karatchadals," —  ("Russian  Discoveries  between  Asia  and 
America,''  William  Coxe,  London,  1803,  p.  60,  quoting  Steller's 
account  of  the  Behring  Voyage.) 

There  are  some  varieties  of  agaric,  notably  that  of  the  olive-tree, 
which  at  times  emit  by  night  a  phosphorescent  light.  This  peculiarity 
may  well  have  caused  them  to  be  regarded  with  reverential  awe  by  the 
ancients.  On  the  subject  of  this  effulgence,  see  "  Philosophy  of 
Magic,"  Eusebe  Salverte,  New  York,  1862,  vol.  i.  p.  63. 

Pope  Clement  VII.  died  of  eating  too  many  mushrooms.  See  Schu- 
rig's  "Chylologia,"  Dresden,  1725,  vol.  i.  p.  60. 

(Tierra  del  Fuego.)  "There  is  one  vegetable  production  in  this 
country  which  is  worthy  of  mention,  as  it  affords  a  staple  article  of 
food  to  the  natives.  It  is  a  globular  fungus,  of  a  bright  yellow  color, 
and  of  about  the  size  of  a  small  apple,  which  adheres  in  vast  numbers 
to  the  bark  of  the  beech-trees.  ...  It  is  eaten  by  the  Fuegians  in 
large  quantities,  uncooked,  and  when  well  chewed  has  a  mucilaginous 
and  slightly  sweet  taste,  together  with  a  faint  odor  like  that  of  a 
mushroom.  Excepting  a  few  berries  of  a  dwarf  arbutus,  which  need 
hardly  be  taken  into  account,  these  poor  savages  never  eat  any  other 
vegetable  food  besides  this  fungus."  —  (Darwin,  in  "  Voyage  of  Ad- 
venture and  Beagle,"  London,  1839,  vol.  iii.  pp.  298,  299.) 

"  These  Fuegians  appeared  to  think  the  excrescences  which  grow  on 
the  birch-trees,  like  the  gall-nuts  on  an  oak,  an  estimable  dainty."  — 
(Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  440  ;  again,  vol.  ii.  p.  185.) 

Agaric,  or  toadstool,  employed  in  medicine  "  to  provoke  to  vomit " 
(see  "Most  Excellent  and  Approved  Medicines,"  London,  1654,  pp.  3 
and  10) ;  also  given  "for  provoking  the  courses  "  (idem,  p.  23)  ;  also 
"to  loosen  the  body"  (idem,  p.  36). 

To  insure  conception,  the  belief  was  that  both  man  and  woman 
should  take  a  potion  of  hare's  rennet  in  wine,  —  "then  quickly  she 
will  be  pregnant,  and  for  meat  she  shall  for  some  while  eat  mush- 
rooms." —  ("  Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  347-) 

The  Bannocks  and  Shoshonees  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  eat  mush- 
rooms, —  "  the  kind  that  grows  on  a  Cottonwood  stump ;  they  know 


84  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

that  some  kinds  are  bad."  —  (Interview  with  the  Bannocks  and  Sho- 
shonees,  through  the  interpreters,  Joe  and  Charlie  Raiuey,  at  Fort 
Hall,  Idaho,  1881. 

The  Indians  above  mentioned  had  no  knowledge  of  any  dance  in 
connection  with  the  mushroom  or  fungus. 


THE  MUSHROOM   IN   CONNECTION   WITH   THE   FAIRIES. 


XII. 

THE  MUSHROOM  IN  CONNECTIO]S'  WITH  THE  FAIRIES. 

T"N  the  opinion  of  the  folk  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  possibly  of 
'~  the  Continent  as  well,  the  mushroom  was  intimately  connected 
with  the  dwellers  in  the  realm  of  sprites  and  fairies,  as  can  be  shown 
'  in  a  moment,  and  by  simple  reference. 

The  lore  of  the  peasantry  of  those  countries  is  replete  with  the 
uncanniness  of  the  "Fairy  Circles,"  which  modem  investigation  has 
shown  to  be  due  to  a  species  of  fungus. 

"  Various  theories  were  current  among  the  peasantry  to  account  for 
their  existence.  Some  of  them  ascribed  them  to  lightning ;  others  to 
moles  or  other  animals ;  and  others  again  to  the  growth  of  a  species 
of  fungus.  This  is  the  more  educated  class.  But  the  lower  orders 
implicitly  believed  that  they  were  the  work  of  the  fairies,  and  used  by 
them  for  their  nocturnal  dancing.  Woe  to  the  poor  mortal  who  ven- 
tured near  at  such  moments.  He  was  seized,  forced  to  dance,  soon 
lost  all  consciousness,  and  was  truly  in  luck  if  he  ever  again  suc- 
ceeded in  rejoining  his  mortal  relatives,"  A  very  exhaustive  account  of 
these  Circles,  and  the  superstitions  in  reference  to  thero,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  third  volume  of  Brand's  Popular  Antiquities,  London, 
•1854,  article  "Fairy  Mythology,"  p.  476  et  seq. 

"The  most  clear  and  satisfactory  remarks  on  the  origin  of  fairy 
rings  are  probably  those  of  Dr.  Wollaston,  Sec.  R.  S.,  printed  in  the 
second  part  of  the  "Philosophical  Transactions  "  for  1807.  .  .  .  The 
cause  of  their  appearance  he  ascribes  to  the  growth  of  cei*tain  species 
of  agaric,  which  so  entirely  absorbs  all  nutriment  from  the  soil  beneath 
that  the  herbage  is  for  a  while  destroyed."  —  (Idem,  p.  483.) 

"  In  Northumberland,  the  common  people  call  a  certain  fungous 
excrescence,  sometimes  found  about  the  roots  of  old  trees,  Fairy  But- 
ter. After  great  rains,  and  in  a  certain  degree  of  putrefaction,  it  is 
reduced  to  a  consistency  which,  together  with  its  color,  makes  it  not 
unlike  butter,  and  hence  the  name." —  (Idem,  p.  493.) 


86  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

Lady  "Wilde's  work,  already  quoted,  makes  no  reference  to  the 
employment  of  either  mushrooms  or  misletoe  by  the  Irish  peasantry. 

The  mixing,  in  the  popular  imagination,  of  Fairies  aud  Druids,  of 
Fairy  Circles  and  the  Druid  Circles,  is  noticed  on  p.  505,  Brand,  art. 
"  Fairy  Mythology." 

Perhaps  in  all  this  there  may  be  a  vague  reminiscence  of  a  former 
use  of  the  agaric  in  potions  not  very  dissimilar  to  those  still  to  be 
found  among  the  Koraks  and  Tchuktchi.  We  read  that  this  Witches' 
Butter  was  associated  with  sorcery.  It  was  believed  in  Sweden  to 
have  been  "  spewed  up  "  by  the  cat  which  went  with  the  witch.  —  (See 
Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1872,  vol.  iii.  p.  7,  article 
"Sorcery.") 

"  Ko  subject  could  be  more  interesting  than  an  inquiry  into  the 
origin  of  the  superstitions  of  uncivilized  tribes."  ("  Philosophy  of 
Magic,"  Salverte,  vol.  i.  p.  138.)  Salverte  remarks  that  the  Fairies 
"  were  supposed  to  be  diminutive,  aerial  beings,  beautiful,  lively, 
and  beneficent  in  their  intercourse  with  mortals,  inhabiting  a  region 
called  Fairy  Land,  —  Alf-Heiner,  —  commonly  appearing  on  earth 
at  intervals,  when  they  left  traces  of  their  visits  in  beautiful  green 
rings,  where  the  dewy  sward  had  been  trodden  in  their  moon-light 
dances.  .  .  .  The  investigations  of  science  have  traced  these  rings 
to  a  species  of  fungus,  —  Agaricus  oreades,  —  but  imagination  still 
leads  us  willingly  back  to  the  traditional  appearance  of  these  dimin- 
utive beings  in  the  train  of  their  queen ;  .  .  .  and  we  also  behold  her 
tiny  followers  dancing  away  the  midnight  hours  to  the  sound  of  the 
most  enchanting  music." —  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  138,  footnote.) 

There  is  the  following  memorandum  in  Hazlitt's  "Fairy  Tales" 
(London,  1875,  p.  35)  :  "  Mem.,  that  pigeon's-dung  and  nitre  steeped 
in  water  will  make  the  fayry  circles ;  it  draws  to  it  the  nitre  of  the 
air,  and  it  will  never  vreare  out." 

"  The  mushroom  has  always  been  associated  with  fairy-lore.  It  is 
mentioned  as  the  fairy  diuing-table  (p.  502)  ;  while  in  the  list  of  foods 
partaken  of  by  Oberon,  we  read  :  — 

"...  with  a  wine, 
"Ne'er  ravished  with  a  clustered  vine, 
But  gently  strained  from  the  side 
Of  a  sweet  and  dainty  bride  ; 
Brought  in  a  daizy  chalice,  which 
He  fully  quaffed  up  to  bewitch 
His  blood  to  height." 


THE   MUSHROOM   IN   CONNECTION   WITH   THE    FAIRIES.  87 

While  Kobiu  Goodfellow  is  represented  as  singing,  — 

"When  lads  and  lasses  merry  be, 
With  possets  and  with  jnncates  fine, 
Unseene  of  all  the  company, 
I  cat  their  cakes  and  sip  their  wine  ; 
And  to  make  sport, 
I  fart  and  snort, 
And  out  the  candles  I  do  blow." 

—  (Brand,  Pop.  Ant,  London,  1872,  pp.  476  et  seq.,  articles  "  Fairy  My- 
thology," and  «  Eobin  Goodfellow.") 

Herrick  describes  the  food  of  fairies :  — 

"...  with  a  wine 
Ne'er  ravished  from  the  flattering  vine, 
But  gentle  prest  from  the  soft  side 
Of  the  most  sweet  and  dainty  bride." 

—  (Herrick,   " Hesperides ; "  also  quoted  in  Hazlitt's  "Fairy  Tales," 
London,  1875,  p.  300.) 

The  "wine"  just  described  would  seem  to  belong,  in  all  fairness,  to 
the  classification  of  Ur-Orgies. 

A  careful  search  of  Shakspeare  shows  that  while  perhaps  he  knew 
little  directly  to  our  purpose,  he  still  had  a  knowledge  that  we  may 
utilize;  for  example,  he  speaks  of  the  "midnight  mushroom,"  showing 
that  it  was  an  element  of  midnight  revels  of  the  fairies;  he  alludes  to 
customs  which  certainly  suggest  that  slaves  and  criminals  were  in 
early  days  buried  beneath  dung-heaps  as  a  punishment ;  and  he  can 
be  adduced  to  prove  that  the  epithet  "dunghill"  applied  to  a  man, 
was  a  most  deadly  insult;  but  let  the  bard  speak  for  himself, — 

"  Prospcro.     Ye  elves  of  hills,  brooks,  standing  lakes  and  groves  ; 
And  ye  that  on  the  sands  with  printless  feet, 
Do  chase  the  ebbing  Neptune  and  do  fly  him, 
When  he  comes  back  ;  you  demi-puppets  that 
By  moonshine  do  the  green,  sour  ringlets  make, 
Whereof  the  ewe  bites  not ;  and  you  whose  pastime 
Is  to  make  midnight  mushrooms."  —  (Tempest,  act  v.  scene  1.) 

*'  yfjax.    Thou  stool  for  a  witch."  —  (Troilns  and  Cressida,  act  ii.  scene  1.) 

The  concordance  consulted  was  that  of  the  Clarkes. 

The  association  of  "  toadstools  "  with  witchcraft  may  have  been  due 
to  the  belief  that  toads  were  the  constant  companions  and  servants  of 
the  witches  and  fairies. 


88  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Gesner  says  that  witches  made  use  of  toads  as  a  charm,  "  ut  vim 
coeundi,  ni  fallor,  in  viris  tollerunt."  —  (Brand,  Pop.  Ant.  London, 
1872,  vol.  ii.  page  170,  art.  "Divination  at  Weddings.") 

"  Un  crapaud  noir  de  venin  "  was  to  be  employed  by  those  seeking 
favor  of  the  witches  of  "  Les  Bourbonnais,"  "La  Fascination."  —  (J. 
Tuchmann,  in  "  Mclusine,"  Paris,  July,  August,  1890.) 

May  dew  was  considered  a  most  beneficial  application  for  the  skin, 
but  young  maidens  while  gathering  it  were  careful  not  "  to  put  foot 
within  the  rings,  lest  they  should  be  liable  to  the  fairies'  power."  — 
("  Illustrations  of  Shakspeare,"  Francis  Douce,  London,  1807,  vol.  i. 
p.  180.) 

It  would  seem  that  the  Saxons  in  England,  at  the  time  of  the  Nor- 
man Conquest,  were  fully  aware  of  the  deadly  effects  producil)le  by  the 
mushroom  :  "The  old  woman  came  back  to  her,  ere  she  went  to  bed. 
*  I  have  found  it  all  out  and  more.  I  know  where  to  get  scarlet  toad- 
stools and  I  put  the  juice  in  his  men's  ale.  They  are  laughing  and 
roaring  now,  merry-mad  every  one  of  them.'  " 

The  effects  of  the  potion  are  thus  described  :  "  His  men  were  grouped 
outside  of  the  gate,  chattering  like  monkej'S ;  the  porter  and  the  monks 
from  the  inside  entreating  them,  vainly,  to  come  in  and  go  to  bed 
quietly. 

"  But  they  would  not.  They  vowed  and  swore  that  a  great  gulf 
had  opened  all  down  the  road,  and  that  one  step  more  .would  tumble 
them  in  headlong.  ...  In  vain  Hereward  stormed ;  assured  them 
that  the  supposed  abyss  was  nothing  but  the  gutter;  proved  the  fact 
by  kicking  Martin  over  it.  The  men  determined  to  believe  their  own 
eyes,  and  after  a  while  fell  asleep  in  heaps  in  the  roadside,  and  lay 
there  till  morning,  when  they  woke,  declaring,  as  did  the  monks,  that 
they  had  been  bewitched.  They  knew  not  —  and  happily,  the  lower 
orders,  both  in  England  and  on  the  Continent,  do  not  yet  know  —  the 
potent  virtues  of  that  strange  fungus  with  which  Lapps  and  Samoieds 
have,  it  is  said,  practised  wonders  for  centuries  past."  —  ("  Hereward, 
the  last  of  the  English,"  Charles  Kingsley,  New  York,  18G6,  p.  111.) 

See  also  under  "  Ordeals  and  Punishments,"  and  "  Insults." 


I 


PROBABLE  USE   OF  FUNGI   AMONG   THE   MEXICANS.  89 


XIII. 

A  USE  OF  POISONOUS  FUNGI  QUITE  PROBABLY  EXISTED 
AMONG  THE  MEXICANS. 

T~^HAT  some  such  use  of  poisonous  fungi  as  has  been  shown  exists 
-^  among  the  tribes  of  Siberia  was  made  by  other  nations,  would  be 
difl&cult  to  prove  in  the  absence  of  direct  testimony,  but  many  inci- 
dental references  are  encountered  which  the  reflective  mind  must 
consider  with  care  before  rejecting  them  as  absolutely  irrelevant  in  this 
connection.  The  Mexicans,  as  we  learn  from  Sahagun,  were  not  igno- 
rant of  the  mushroom,  which  is  described  as  the  basis  of  one  of  their 
festivals.  He  says  that  they  ate  the  nanacatl,  a  poisonous  fungus 
which  intoxicated  as  much  as  wine ;  after  eating  it,  they  assembled  in 
a  plain,  where  they  danced  and  sang  by  night  and  by  day  to  their 
fullest  desire.  This  was  on  the  first  day,  because  on  the  following  day 
they  all  wept  bitterly,  and  they  said  that  they  were  cleaning  them- 
selves arid  washing  their  eyes  and  faces  with  their  tears.^ 

It  is  true  that  Sahagun  does  not  describe  any  specially  revolting 
feature  in  this  orgy,  but  it  is  equally  patent  that  he  is  describing  from 
hearsay,  and,  probably,  he  was  not  allowed  to  know  too  much.  In  a 
second  reference  to  this  fungus,  which  he  now  calls  teo-nanacatl, 
he  alludes  to  the  toxic  properties,  which  coincide  closely  with  those 
of  the  mushrooms  noted  in  Siberia  and  on  the  northwest  coast  of 
America. 

"  There  are  some  mushrooms  in  this  country  which  are  called  teo- 
nanacatl.  They  grow  under  the  gi'ass  in  the  fields  and  plains ;  .  .  . 
they  are  hurtful  to  the  throat  and  intoxicate ;  .  .  .  those  who  eat 

*  Nanacatl,  que  son  los  hongos  malos  que  emborrachan  tan  bien  como  el  vino  ; 
y  se  juntaban  en  i;n  llano  despues  de  haberlo  comido,  donde  bailaban  y  cantaban 
de  noche  y  de  dia  a  su  placer  ;  y  esto  el  primer  dia  porque  al  dia  sigiiiente  Uoraban 
todos  mucho  y  decian  que  se  limpiaban  y  lavaban  los  ojos  y  caras  con  sus  Idgrimas. 
—  (Sahagun,  in  Kingsborough's  "Mexican  Antiquities,"  vol.  vii.  p.  308.) 


90  SCA.TALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

them  see  visions  and  feel  flutterings  in  the  heart;  those  who  eat  many 
of  them  are  excited  to  lust,  and  even  so  if  they  eat  but  few."  ^ 

The  proof  is  not  at  all  conclusive  that  this  intoxication  was  produced 
as  among  the  Siberian  and  Cape  Flattery  tribes ;  but  it  is  very  odd 
that  the  Aztecs  should  eat  mushrooms  for  the  same  purpose ;  that  they 
should  hold  their  dance  out  in  a  plain  and  by  night  (that  is,  in  a  place 
as  remote  as  possible  from  Father  Sahagun's  inspection).  On  the  sec- 
ond day,  to  trust  Sahagun's  explanation,  they  would  appear  to  have 
bewailed  their  behavior  on  the  first ;  although  it  should  be  remarked 
here  that  ceremonial  weeping  has  not  been  unknown  to  the  American 
aborigines,  and  may,  in  this  case,  have  been  induced  by  causes  not 
revealed  to  the  stranger.  Lastly,  it  is  important  to  note  that  this 
poisonous  fungus  was  a  violent  excitant,  a  nervous  irritant,  and  an 
aphrodisiac. 

Another  early  Spanish  observer,  also  cited  by  Kingsborough,  de- 
scribes them  in  these  terms :  — 

"They  had  another  kind  of  drunkenness,  ,  .  .  which  was  with  small 
fungi  or  mushrooms,  .  .  .  which  are  eaten  raw,  and,  on  account  of 
being  bitter,  they  drink  after  them  or  eat  with  them  a  little  honey  of 
bees,  and  shortly  after  that  they  see  a  thousand  visions,  especially 
snakes. 

"They  went  raving  mad,  running  about  the  streets  in  a  wild  state 
('bestial  embriaguez ').  They  called  these  fungi  *  teo-na-m-catl,'  a 
word  meaning  *  bread  of  the  gods.' " 

This  author  does  not  allude  to  any  effect  upon  the  kidneys.* 

This  account  can  be  compared,  word  for  word,  with  those  previously 
quoted  from  the  Moqui  Indian  and  from  the  descriptions  of  the  Ur- 
Orgies  of  the  Siberians. 

*  Hay  linos  honguillos  en  esta  tierra  que  se  llaraan  teo-nanacatl ;  crianse  debajo 
del  heno  en  los  campos  6  paramos  .  .  .  daiian  la  garganta  y  emborrachan  .  .  .  los 
que  los  comen  ven  visiones  y  sienten  buscas  en  el  corazon  ;  a  los  que  comen  muchos 
de  ellos  provocan  a  luxuria,  y  aunque  sean  pocos.  —  (Sahagun,  in  Kingsborougli's 
"Mexican  Antiquities,"  voL  vii.  p.  369.) 

*  Tenian  otra  manera  de  embriaguez  .  .  .  era  con  unos  bongos  6  .setas  pequeftas 
.  .  .  que  comidos  crudos  y  por  ser  amargos,  beben  tras  ellos  6  comen  con  ellos  uu 
poco  de  miel  de  abejas,  y  de  alii  d  poco  rato,  veian  mil  visiones  y  en  especial  culc- 
bras.  —  ( By  the  author  of  ' '  Kitos  Antiguos,  Sacrificios  e  idolatrias  de  los  Indios  en 
Nueva  Espafta,"  Kingsborough,  vol.  ix.  p.  17.) 

This  author  seems  to  have  been  the  Franciscan  Fray  Toribio  de  Benvento,  com- 
monly called  by  his  Aztec  nickname  of  "  Motolinia,  the  Beggar."  He  is  designated 
by  Kingsborough  "the  Unknown  Franciscan,"  because,  through  motives  of  humil- 
ity, he  declined  to  subscribe  his  name  to  liis  valuable  writings. 


PROBABLE  USE   OF  FUNGI  AMONG  THE  MEXICANS.  91 

The  list  of  quotations  is  not  yet  complete.  Tezozomoc,  also  an 
author  of  repute,  relates  that  at  tlie  coronation  of  Montezuma  the 
Mexicans  gave  wild  mushrooms  to  the  strangers  to  eat ;  that  the 
strangers  became  drunk,  and  thereupon  began  to  dance.^  All  of  which 
is  a  terse  description  of  a  drunken  orgy  induced  by  poisonous  mush- 
rooms, but  not  represented  with  the  disgusting  sequences  which  would 
have  served  to  establish  a  connection  with  urine  dances. 

Diego  Duran  also  gives  the  particulars  of  the  coronation  of  this  Mon- 
tezuma (the  second  of  the  name  and  the  one  on  the  throne  at  the  date 
of  the  arrival  of  Cortes).  He  says  that,  after  the  usual  human  sacri- 
fices had  been  offered  up  in  the  temples,  all  went  to  eat  raw  mushrooms, 
which  caused  them  to  lose  their  senses  and  affected  them  more  than 
if  they  had  drunk  much  wine.  So  utterly  beside  themselves  were  they 
that  many  of  them  killed  themselves  with  their  own  hands,  and  by  the 
potency  of  those  mushrooms  they  saw  visions  and  had  revelations  of 
the  future,  the  devil  speaking  to  them  in  their  drunkenness.'^  Duran, 
of  course,  is  not  describing  what  he  saw.  Doubtless,  in  that  case,  his 
narrative  would  have  been  more  animated  and,  possibly,  more  to  our 
purpose. 

MUSHROOMS   AND   TOADSTOOLS  WORSHIPPED   BY   AMERICAN   INDIANS. 

Dorman  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  mushrooms  were  wor- 
shipped by  the  Indians  of  the  Antilles,  and  toadstools  by  those  in  Vir- 
ginia,' but  for  what  toxic  or  therapeutic  qualities,  real  or  supposed,  he 
does  not  say.  The  toxic  properties  of  fungi  would  seem  to  have  been 
known  to  the  Algonkins  :  — 

"Paused  to  rest  beneath  a  pine  tree, 
From  whose  branches  trail  the  mosses, 
And  whose  trunk  was  coated  over 
"With  the  Dead  Man's  Moccasin  Leather, 
With  the  fungus  white  and  yellow." 

"  Hiawatha,"  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  canto  ix. 

1  A  los  estranjeros,  le3  dieron  &  comer  hongos  montesinos  que  se  embriagaban 
con  ellos  y  con  esto  entrdron  a  la  danza.  —  (Tezozomoc,  "  Cronica  Mexicana,"  in 
Kingsborough,  "Mexican  Antiquities,"  vol.  ix.  p.  153.) 

2  Ivan  todos  a  comer  hongos  crudos,  con  la  cual  comida  salian  todos  de  juicio  y 
quedaban  peores  que  si  hubieran  bebido  mucho  vino  ;  tan  embriagados  y  fuera  de 
sentido  que  muchos  de  ellos  se  mataban  con  propria  mano  ;  y  con  la  fuerza  de 
aquellos  hongos  vian  visiones  y  tenian  rebelaciones  de  lo  porvenir  hablandoles  el 
Demonio  en  aquella  embriaguez.  —  (Diego  Duran,  lib.  2,  cap.  54,  p.  564.  ) 

8  Rushton  M.  Dorman,  "  Primitive  Superstitions,"  New  York,  1881,  p.  295. 


'92  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 


A   FORMER   USE   OF    FUNGUS   INDICATED    IN    THE   MYTHS   OF    CEYLON, 
AND    IN    THE    LAWS    OF    THE    BRAHMINS. 

On  the  west  shore  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  aside  from  the  orgies  of  the 
Siberian  Shamans,  no  instance  is  on  record  of  the  use  of  the  mush- 
room, or  other  fungus  in  religious  rites  in  the  present  day. 

A  former  use  of  it  is  indicated  in  the  Cingalese  myths,  which  teach 
that  "Chance  produced  a  species  of  mushroom  called  mattika^  or  jessa- 
thon,  on  which  they  lived  for  sixty-five  thousand  years ;  but  being  de- 
termined to  make  an  equal  division  of  this,  also,  they  lost  it.  Luckily 
for  them,  another  creeping  plant  [mistletoe  ?]  called  badrilata  grew  up, 
on  which  they  (the  Brahmins)  fed  for  thirty-five  thousand  years,  but 
which  they  lost  for  the  same  reason  as  the  former  ones."  —  ("Asiatic 
Researches,"  Calcutta,  1807,  vol.  vii.  p.  441.) 

Among  the  Brahmins  of  the  main  land  no  such  myth  is  related  ;  but 
an  English  writer  says  : 

"  The  ancient  Hindus  held  the  fungus  in  such  detestation  that  Yama, 
a  legislator,  supposed  now  to  be  the  judge  of  departed  spirits,  declares: 
*  Those  who  eat  mushrooms,  whether  springing  from  the  ground  or 
growing  on  a  tree,  fully  equal  in  guilt  to  the  slayers  of  Brahmins  and 
the  most  despicable  of  all  deadly  sinners."  —  ("Asiatic  Researches," 
Calcutta,  1795,  vol.  iv.  p.  311.) 

Dubois  refers  to  the   same   subject.     "The   Brahmins,"   he   says, 

"have  also  retrenched  from  their  vegetable  food,  which  is  the  great 

-fund  of  their  subsistence,  all  roots  which  form  a  head  or  bulb  in  the 

ground,  such  as  onions,'^  and  those  also  which  assume  the  same  shape 

above  ground,  like  muslirooms  and  some  others.  .  .  .  Are  we  to  sup- 

^  The  word  "mattika"  cannot  be  found  in  Forbes'  English-Hisdnstani  Diction- 
ary (London,  1848).  It  may,  perhaps,  belong  to  an  extinct  dialect.  The  word 
"  matt,"  meaning  "drunk,"  would  serve  a  good  purpose  for  this  article  could  a  rela- 
tionship be  shown  to  exist  between  it  and  "  mattika."  This  the  author  is  of  course 
unable  to  do,  being  totally  ignorant  of  Hindustani.  Neither  does  "badrilata" 
■occur  in  Forbes,  who  interprets  "  mistletoe"  as  "banda."  The  contributor  to  the 
Asiatic  Researches,  who  used  the  word,  thought  it  meant  "agaric." 

2  Higgius  believes  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  had  discovered  a  similarity  between 
the  coats  of  an  onion  and  the  planetary  spheres,  and  says  that  "  it  was  called  (by  the 
Greeks),  from  being  sacred  to  the  father  of  ages,  oionoon  —  onion.  •  .  .  The  onion 
was  adored  (as  the  black  stone  in  Westminster  Abbey  is  by  us)  by  the  Egyptians 
for  this  property  as  a  type  of  the  eternal  renewal  of  ages.  .  .  .  The  onion  is  adored 
in  India,  and  forbidden  to  be  eaten."  —  (Quoting  "Forster's  Sketches  of  Hindoos," 
p.  35.      Higgins'  "Anacalypsis,"  vol.  ii.  p.  427.) 


PROBABLE  USE  OF  FUNGI  AMONG  THE  MEXICANS.  93 

pose  that  they  had  discovered  something  unwholesome  in  the  one 
species  and  proscribed  the  other  on  account  of  its  fetid  smell  1  This  I 
cannot  decide ;  all  the  information  I  have  ever  obtained  from  those 
among  those  whom  I  have  consulted  on  the  Reasons  of  their  abstinence 
from  them  being  that  it  is  customary  to  avoid  such  articles."  —  (Abbe 
Dubois,  "People  of  India,"  London,  1817,  p.  117.) 

This  iuhibitiou,  under  such  dire  penalties,  can  have  but  one  mean- 
ing. In  primitive  times  the  people  of  India  must  have  been  so  ad- 
dicted to  the  debauchery  induced  by  potions  into  the  composition  of 
which  entered  poisonous  fungi  and  mistletoe  (the  mushroom  "  growing 
on  a  tree  "),  and  the  eflfects  of  such  debauchery  must  have  been  found 
so  debasing  and  pernicious,  that  the  priest-rulers  were  compelled  to 
employ  the  same  maledictions  which  Moses  proved  of  efficacy  in  with- 
drawing the  children  of  Israel  from  the  worship  of  idols.^ 

*  But  on  the  sixth  day  of  the  moon's  age  "  women  walk  in  the  forests  with  a  fan 
in  one  hand,  and  eat  certain  vegetables,  in  hope  of  beautiful  children.  See  the 
account  given  by  Pliny  of  the  Druidical  mistletoe  or  viscum,  which  was  to  be 
gathered  when  the  moon  was  six  days  old,  as  a  preservative  from  sterility."  —  (Sir 
AVilliam  Jones  in  "Asiatic  Researches,"  Calcutta,  1790,  vol.  iii.  art.  12,  p.  284, 
quoted  by  Edward  Moor,  "  Hindu  Pantheon,"  London,  1810,  p.  134.) 


94  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XIV. 

THE  ONION  ADORED   BY   THE  EGYPTIANS. 

^"^HERE  are  examples  of  the  ideas  surrounding  onions,  leeks,  garlic, 
-*-    and  bulbous  vegetables  of  different  kinds,  in  many  countries. 

*'  The  Egyptians  likened  the  whole  firmament  to  an  onion  with  its 
varied  shells  and  radiations  ;  and  this,  together  with  the  aphrodisiacal 
and  fertilizing  properties  which  this  vegetable  is  almost  universally 
held  to  possess,  rendered  it  sacred."  —  ("  Rivers  of  Life,"  Forlong,  Lon- 
don, 1883,  vol.  i.  p.  474.) 

"The  species  of  onion  which  the  Egyptians  abhorred  was  the  squill 
or  red  squill,  because  consecrated  to  Typhon  ;  the  other  kinds  they  ate 
indiscriminately."  —  (Fosbroke,  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Antiquities,"  London, 
1843,  vol.  ii.  p.  109,  article  "  Onion.") 

"At  Babylon,  beside  Memphis,  they  made  an  onion  their  god."  — 
(Reginald  Scot,  "  Discovery  of  Witchcraft,"  London,  1651,  p.  376.) 

"  Beans  the  Egyptians  do  not  sow  at  all  in  their  country  ;  neither  do 
they  eat  those  that  happen  to  grow  there,  nor  taste  them  when  dressed. 
The  priests  indeed  abhor  the  sight  of  that  pulse,  accounting  it  impure." 
—  (Herodotus,  "  Euterpe,"  p.  36.) 

Among  the  Romans,  "  the  Flamen  Dialis  might  not  ride,  or  even 
touch,  beans  or  ivy."  —  ("  The  Golden  Bough,"  James  G.  Frazer,  M.A., 
'London,  1890,  vol.  i.  p.  117.) 

Pliny  mentions  the  medicinal  use  of  certain  bulbs,  difficult  of  denti- 
fication  in  our  day.  "  The  bulb  of  Msegara  acts  as  a  strong  aphro- 
disiac ; "  others  "  aid  delivery ; "  others  were  used  "  for  the  cure  of  the 
sting  of  serpents."  The  ancients  used  to  give  bulb-seeds  "  to  per- 
sons afflicted  with  madness,  in  drink."  —  (Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.  lib.  20, 
cap.  40.) 

Martial  has  the  following  :  "  XXXIV.  Bulbs.  If  your  wife  is  old 
and  your  members  languid,  bulbs  can  do  no  more  for  you  than  fill 
your  belly  "  (edition  of  London,  1871).  A  footnote  to  the  above 
says  :  '*  To  what  particular  bulb  provocative  effects  were  attributed  is 
unknown." 


THE  ONION  ADORED  BY  THE  EGYPTIANS.  95 

Acosta  says  of  the  Peruvians  that  before  any  of  their  great  cere- 
monies, "  to  prepare  themselves,  all  the  people  fasted  two  days,  during 
which  they  did  neyther  company  with  their  wives  nor  eate  any  meate 
with  salt  or  garlicke,  nor  drink  any  chica."  —  (Acosta,  "  Historie  of 
the  Indies,"  edition  of  London,  1604,  quoted  by  Lang,  **Myth,  Eitual, 
and  Religion,"  London,  1887,  vol.  ii.  p.  283.) 

According  to  Avicenna,  garlic  was  a  provocative  of  the  menses  (vol.  i. 
p.  276  a  52). 

When  a  priest  of  the  state  religion  of  China  is  about  to  oflfer  a  sacri- 
fice he  must  abstain  from  cohabitation  with  his  wives  and  "from  eat- 
ing onions,  leeks,  or  garlic."  —  ("Chinese  Repository,"  Canton,  1835, 
vol.  iii.  p.  52.) 

Juvenal  says  of  the  Egyptians  :  "  It  is  an  impious  act  to  break  with 
the  teeth  a  leek  or  an  onion."  —  (Satire  xv.,  Rev.  Lewis  Evans's 
translation.) 

By  the  Irish  peasantry  "  garlic  is  planted  in  the  thatch  "  to  drive 
away  fairies  and  witches.  —  ("  Medical  Mythology  of  Ireland,"  James 
Mooney,  American  Philosophical  Society,  1887.) 

The  Danes  placed  garlic  in  the  cradle  of  the  new-born  child  to  avert 
the  maleficence  of  witches.  —  (See  Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  73,  article  "  Groaning  Cakes  and  Cheese.") 

In  rustic  England  many  good  folk  still  believe  that  the  house  upon 
which  grows  the  leek  will  never  be  struck  by  lightning.  —  (See  Brand, 
"  Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  317,  article  "Rural  Charms.") 

Speaking  of  the  Russian  dissenters,  known  as  the  Raskol,  Heard 
says  :  "  They  carried  their  resistance  into  all  the  details  of  daily  life ; 
as  matters  of  conscience,  they  eschewed  the  use  of  tobacco,  for  '  the 
things  which  come  out  of  him,  those  are  they  that  defile  the  man' 
(Markvii.  15)  ;  of  the  potato,  as  being  the  fruit  with  which  the  serpent 
tempted  Eve." — ("The  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent,"  Al- 
bert F.  Heard,  New  York  and  Loudon,  1887,  p.  19-t.) 

The  quotation  from  the  New  Testament  seems  applicable  to  the  sub- 
ject of  urine  dances,  and  the  interdiction  of  the  use  of  the  potato  may 
mean  more  than  appears  on  the  surface. 

Possibly,  the  intention  in  Russia  was  to  wean  the  sectaries  away 
from  the  use  of  bulbs  or  fungi  not  to  the  liking  of  the  more  thoughtful 
leaders  of  the  new  movement. 

"  From  the  earliest  times  garlic  has  been  an  article  of  diet."  —  (En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica,  mentioning  Israelites,  Egyptians,  Greeks,  and 
Romans.) 


96  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

In  the  time  of  Shakspeare,  "  to  smell  of  garlic  was  accounted  a  sign 
of  vulgarity."  —  (Idem,  referring  to  "  Coriolanus,"  iv.  6,  and  "Meas- 
ure for  Measure,"  iii.  2.) 

"  Garlic  was  placed  by  the  ancient  Greeks  on  the  piles  of  stones  at 
cross-roads  as  a  supper  for  Hecate."  —  (Idem.) 

"  According  to  Pliny,  garlic  and  onions  were  invoked  as  deities  by 
the  Egj'ptians  at  tlie  taking  of  oaths.  The  inhabitants  of  Pelusium,  in 
Lower  Egypt,  who  worshipped  the  onion,  are  said  to  have  held  both 
it  and  garlic  in  aversion  as  food."  —  (Eucyc.  Brit.,  article  "  Garlic") 

Garlic  is  "  fastened  to  the  caps  of  children,  suspended  from  the 
sterns  of  vessels  and  from  new  houses,  in  the  Levant,  as,  centuries  ago, 
it  was  hung  over  the  door  in  the  more  civilized  parts  of  Europe."  — 
("Superstitions  of  Scotland,"  John  Graham  Dalyell,  Edinburgh,  1834, 
p.  219.) 

"  The  onion  was  among  the  earliest  cultivated  vegetables,  and  in 
Egj'pt  was  a  sort  of  divinity."  —  (American  Encyclopaedia,  New  York, 
1881,  article  "  Onion.") 

"A  phallic  importance  seems  to  have  attached  to  the  onion.  Burton, 
in  his  'Anatomy  of  Melancholy,'  edition  of  1660,  p.  538,  speaks  of 
'  cromnysmantia,*  —  a  kind  of  divination  with  onions  laid  on  the  altar 
at  Christmas  Eve,  practised  by  girls  to  know  when  they  shall  be  mar- 
ried and  how  many  husbands  they  shall  have.  This  appears  also  to 
have  been  a  German  custom."  —  (Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii. 
pp.  356,  357.) 

Sir  Thomas  More  wrote  the  following  (the  original  is  in  Latin ;  the 
translation  is  by  Harington) :  — 

"  If  leeks  you  leek,  but  do  tlieir  snn41  disleek, 
Eat  onions,  and  you  shall  not  smell  the  leek  ; 
If  you  of  onions  would  the  scent  expel, 
Eat  garlic,  that  shall  drown  the  onion's  smell  ; 
But  against  garlic's  savour,  at  one  word, 
I  know  but  one  receipt.     What's  that  ?    Go  look." 

The  last  line  is  left  untranslated  ;  in  the  original  it  reads,  — 

"  Aut  nihil,  aut  tautum,  toUere  merda  potest." 

(Harington,  "  Ajax,"  quoting  Sir  Thomas  More.) 


SACRED   INTOXICATION   AND   PHALLISM.  97 


XV. 

SACRED   INTOXICATION  AND   PHALLISM. 

^T^WO  fundamental  principles  underlie  the  structure  of  primordial 
-^  religion,  —  Intoxication  and  Phallism.  All  perversion  of  the 
cerebral  functions,  whether  temporary  estrangement  or  permanent 
alienation,  is  classified  as  Obsession  ;  and  the  pranks  and  gibberish 
of  the  maniac  or  the  idiot  are  solemnly  treasured  as  outbursts  of 
inspiration. 

Where  such  temporary  exaltation  can  be  produced  by  an  herb,  bulb, 
liquid,  or  food,  the  knowledge  of  such  excitant  is  kept  as  long  as  pos- 
sible from  the  laity  ;  and  even  after  the  general  diffusion  of  a  more  en- 
lightened intelligence  has  broadened  the  mental  horizon  of  the  devotee, 
these  narcotics  and  irritants  are  "  sacred,"  and  the  frenzies  they  induce 
are  "  sacred  "  also. 

If  the  drug  in  question,  whatever  it  be,  possess  the  additional  recom- 
mendation of  acting  upon  the  genito-urinary  organs,  and  by  arousing 
the  sexual  energies  appeals  to  the  phallic  element  in  the  religious 
nature,  the  apotheosis  of  the  drug  follows  as  a  matjter  of  course,  no 
matter  under  what  expression  or  symbolism  it  may  be  veiled ;  and  as 
human  nature  feels  the  necessity  of  restraint  upon  the  passions  as  well 
as  a  stimulus  thereof,  it  follows  that  there  are  to  be  noted  many  cases 
in  which  a  veneration  is  paid  to  plants  and  drugs  which  have  just  the 
opposite  effect,  —  that  is  to  say  that  where  an  aphrodisiac  is  held 
among  the  sacred  essences  or  agents  its  counter  or  antagonist  is  held 
in  almost  equal  esteem. 

Mushroom,  mistletoe,  rue,  ivy,  mandrake,  hemp,  opium,  the  stra- 
monium of  the  medicine-man  of  the  Hualpai  Indians  of  Arizona,  — 
all  may  well  be  examined  in  the  light  of  this  proposition.  Frazer 
says:  "  According  to  primitive  notions,  all  abnormal  states  —  such  as 
intoxication  or  madness  —  are  caused  by  the  entrance  of  a  spirit 
into  the  person ;  such  mental  states,  in  other  words,  are  regarded  as 
forms  of  possession  or  inspiration."  —  ("  The  Golden  Bough,"  vol.  i. 
p.  184.) 

7 


98  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

"  Women  who  were  addicted  to  Bacchanalian  sports  presently  ran  to 
the  ivy  and  plucked  it  off,  tearing  it  to  pieces  with  their  hands  and 
gnawing  it  with  their  mouths.  ...  It  was  reported  ...  it  hath  a 
spirit  that  stirreth  and  moveth  to  madness,  transporting  and  bereaving 
of  the  senses,  and  that  alone  by  itself  it  introduceth  drunkenness  with- 
out wine  to  those  that  have  an  easy  inclination  to  enthusiasm."  — 
(Plutarch,  "  Morals,"  Goodwin's  English  translation,  Boston,  1870, 
vol.  ii.  p.  264.) 

An  eternal  drunkenness  was  the  reward  held  out  to  the  savage  warrior 
in  many  regions  of  the  world  ;  the  Scandinavians,  as  well  as  the  Indians 
of  the  Pampas,  had  this  belief.  —  (See  "  Les  Primitifs,"  Elie  Reclus, 
Paris,  1885,  p.  123.) 

Speaking  of  the  Ur-Orgy  of  the  Siberians,  Dr.  J.  W.  Kingsley  com- 
ments in  the  following  terms  :  "  I  remember  being  shown  this  fungus 
by  an  Englishman  who  was  returning  via  the  Central  Pacific  Railway 
from  Siberia.  He  fully  confirmed  all  that  I  had  heard  on  the  subject, 
having  seen  the  orgy  himself.  .  .  .  Nothing  religious  in  this,  you  may 
say  ;  but  look  at  the  question  a  little  closer  and  you  will  see  that  these 
*  intoxicants,'  which  nowadays  are  used  to  produce  mere  excitement 
or  brutal  drunkenness,  were  at  first  looked  upon  as  media  able  to  raise 
the  mere  man  up  to  a  level  with  his  gods,  and  enable  him  to  communi- 
cate with  them, as  was  certainly  the  case  with  the  *  soma'  of  the  Hindu 
ecstatics  and  the  hashich  I  have  seen  used  by  some  tribes  of  Arabs. 
It  would  be  well  worth  while  trying  to  ascertain  whether  the  actors  in 
the  Ur-Orgy  had  eaten  any  particular  kind  of  herb  before  its  com- 
mencement, or  whether  they  had  any  tradition  of  their  ancestors  hav- 
ing done  so."  —  (Personal  letter  to  Captain  Bourke,  dated  Cambridge, 
England,  May,  1888.) 

For  sacred  intoxication  among  the  Finns,  see  also  "  Chaldean  Magic," 
Lenormant,  p.  255,  where  there  is  a  reference  to  "  intoxicating 
idrugs." 


THE  DRUIDICAL  USE  OF  THE  MISTLETOE. 


XVI. 

AN  INQUIRY  INTO  THE  DEUIDICAL   USE  OF  THE 
MISTLETOE. 

"DUT  the  question  at  once  presents  itself,  For  what  reason  did  the 
"^  Celtic  Druids  employ  the  much  venerated  mistletoe  1  This 
question  becomes  of  deep  significance  in  the  light  of  the  learning  shed 
by  Godfrey  Higgins  and  General  Vallencey  upon  the  derivation  of  the 
Druids  from  Buddhistic  or  Brahminical  origin. 

"  Ajasson  enumerates  the  following  superstitious  of  ancient  Britain, 
as  bearing  probable  marks  of  an  Oriental  origin  :  .  .  .  the  ceremonials 
used  in  cutting  the  plants."  —  ("Mistletoe,"  Pliny,  Bohn,  lib.  30, 
cap.  6,  footnote.) 

That  the  mistletoe  was  regarded  as  a  medicine,  and  a  verj'^  potent 
one,  is  easy  enough  to  show.  All  the  encyclopaedias  admit  that  much  ; 
but  the  accounts  that  have  been  preserved  of  the  ideas  associated  with 
this  worship  are  not  complete  or  satisfactory. 

"  The  mistletoe,  which  they  (the  Druids)  called  *  all-heal,'  used 
to  cure  disease."  —  (McClintock  and  Strong's  Encyclopaedia,  quoting 
Stukeley.) 

"  The  British  bards  and  Druids  had  an  extraordinary  veneration  for 
the  number  three.  *  The  mistletoe,'  says  Vallencey,  in  his  *  Grammar 
of  the  Irish  Language,'  '  was  sacred  to  the  Druids,  because  not  only  its 
berries,  but  its  leaves  also,  grow  in  clusters  of  three  united  to  one 
stock.  The  Christian  Irish  held  the  Seamroy  sacred  in  like  manner, 
because  of  three  leaves  united  to  one  stock.'  "  —  (Brand,  "  Popular  An- 
tiquities," London,  1872,  vol.  i,  p.  109,  article  "  St.  Patrick's  Day.") 

"  Within  recent  times  the  mistletoe  has  been  regarded  as  a  valuable 
remedy  in  epilepsy  (query,  on  the  principle  of  similia  simtlibiis  ?)  and 
other  diseases,  but  at  present  is  not  employed.  .  .  .  The  leaves  have 
been  fed  to  sheep  in  time  of  scarcity  of  other  forage  (which  shows  at 
least  that  it  is  edible)." —  (Appleton's  American  Encyclopaedia.) 

"  Seems  to  possess  no  decided  medical  properties."  — (luternation^ 
Encyclopaedia.) 


100  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  It  is  now  perhaps  impossible  to  account  for  the  veneration  in 
which  it  was  held  and  the  wonderful  qualities  which  it  was  supposed 
to  possess."  —  ("The  Druids,"  Eev.  Pdchard  Smiddy,  Dublin,  1871, 
p.  90.) 

Pliny  mentions  three  varieties.  Of  these  "the  hyphar  is  useful  for 
fattening  cattle,  if  they  are  hardy  enough  to  withstand  the  purgative 
effect  it  produces  at  first ;  the  viscum  is  medicinally  of  value  as  an 
(jinoUient,  and  in  cases  of  tumors,  ulcers,  and  the  like." 

Pliny  is  also  quoted  as  saying  that  it  was  considered  of  benefit  to 
women  in  childbirth,  —  "in  conceptum  feminarum  adjuvare  si  omnino 
secum  habeant."  ^  Pliny  is  also  authority  for  the  reverence  in  which 
the  mistletoe  growing  on  the  robur  (Spanish  rohle,  or  evergreen  oak) 
was  held  by  the  Druids.  The  robur,  he  says,  is  their  sacred  tree, 
and  whatever  is  found  growing  upon  it,  they  regard  as  sent  from 
heaven  and  as  the  mark  of  a  tree  chosen  by  God.  —  (Encyclopaedia 
Britannica.) 

Brand  ("  Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1849,  vol.  i.  article  "Mistle- 
toe") cites  the  opinion  of  various  old  authors  that  mistletoe  was  re- 
garded "as  a  medicine  very  likely  to  subdue  not  only  the  epilepsy, 
but  all  other  convulsive  disorders.  .  .  .  The  high  veneration  in  which 
the  Druids  were  held  by  the  people  of  all  ranks  proceeded  in  a  great 
measure  from  the  wonderful  cures  they  wrought  by  means  of  the  mis- 
tletoe of  the  oak.  .  .  .  The  mistletoe  of  the  oak,  which  is  very  rare,  is 
vulgarly  said  to  be  a  cure  for  wind-ruptures  in  children  ;  the  kind 
which  is  found  upon  the  apple  is  said  to  be  good  for  fits." 

"  The  Persians  and  Masagetse  thought  the  mistletoe  something 
divine,  as  well  as  the  Druids."  —  ("Antiquities  of  Cornwall,"  1796, 
p.  G3.) 

After  telling  of  the  use  of  this  plant  among  the  Druids  and  their 
mode  of  gathering  it,  Fosbroke  adds  :  "  Mistletoe  was  not  unknown  in 
the  religious  ceremonies  of  the  ancients,  and  was  supposed  to  have 
magical  and  medicinal  properties."  —  Fosbroke,  Cyclopsedia  of  Antiqui- 
ties, vol.  ii.  p.  1047,  article  "Mistletoe,"  London,  1843. 

Mr.  W.  Winwood  Reade  mentions,  in  his  "  Veil  of  Isis  "  (London, 
1861),  at  page  69,  that  the  missolding  or  mistletoe  of  the  oak,  still 
called  in  Wales  "  all-iach,"  or  "  all-heal,"  was  the  sovereign  remedy  of 
the  Druids;  and  at  page  71  he  adds  that  a  powder  from  its  berries  was 

^  As  has  already  been  shown  on  page  93,  the  sacrificial  mistletoe  was  gathered  by 
the  Druids  when  the  niooa  was  six  days  old,  that  day  being  the  first  of  the  month, 
year,  and  cycle  among  the  Druids. 


THE   DRUIDICAL   USE   OF   THE   MISTLETOE.  101 

considered  a  cure  for  sterility.  He  describes  the  effect  of  mistletoe 
as  that  of  a  strong  purgative.  —  (Personal  letter  from  Frank  Kedc 
Fowke,  Esq.,  South  Keusiugton  Museum,  London,  England,  June  18, 
1888.) 

"The  Druids  named  it  Uil-loc  or  Ail-Heal,  because  they  said  it  pro- 
moted increase  of  species  or  prevented  sterility."  —  ("  Kivers  of  Life," 
Forlong,  vol.  ii.  p.  331.) 

"  We  shall  probably  never  hear  the  whole  truth  in  regard  to  this  an- 
cient religion  (Druidism)  ;  for,  as  Mr.  Davies  says,  'most  of  the  offen- 
sive ceremonies  must  have  been  either  retrenched  or  concealed,'  as  the 
Roman  laws  and  edicts  had  for  ages  (before  the  Bardic  writings)  re- 
strained the  more  cruel  and  bloody  sacrifices,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
Bards  nothing  remained  but  symbolic  rites."  —  ("  Rivers  of  Life," 
Forlong,  vol.  ii.  p.  33 L) 

The  plant  (mistletoe)  is  one  of  world-wide  fame.  Masagsetae,  Sky- 
thians,  and  the  most  ancient  Persians  called  it  the  "  Healer,"  and  Vir- 
gil calls  it  a  "  branch  of  gold  ;  "  while  Charon  was  dumb  in  presence  of 
such  an  augur  of  coming  bliss;  it  was  "the  expectancy  of  all  nations, 
longe  post  tempore  visum,  as  betokening  Sol's  return  to  earth."  — 
("Rivers  of  Life,"  Forlong,  vol.  i.  p.  81.) 

Borlase  sees  much  similarity  between  the  Magi  and  our  Druids,  and 
Strabo  did  the  same.  "  Both  carried  in  their  hands,  during  the  cele- 
bration of  their  rites,  a  bunch  of  plants ;  that  of  the  Magi  was  of  course 
the  Hom,  called  Barsom,  —  Assyrian  and  Persepolis  sculptures  substan- 
tiate this.  The  Hom  looks  very  much  like  the  Mistletoe,  and  the 
learned  Dr.  Stukeley  thinks  that  this  parasite  is  meant  as  being  on 
the  tree  mentioned  by  Isaiah,  vi.  13."  —  ("Rivers  of  Life,"  Forlong, 
vol.  i.  p.  43.) 

"  But  yet  it  shall  be  a  tenth,  and  it  shall  return  and  shall  be  eaten  ; 
as  a  teil  tree  and  as  an  oak,  whose  substance  is  in  them,  when  they 
cast  their  leaves;  so  the  holy  seed  shall  be  the  substance  thereof"  — 
(Isaiah,  vi.  13.) 

"  The  mistletoe  wreath  marks  in  one  sense  Venus's  temple,  for  any 
girl  may  be  kissed  if  caught  under  its  sprays,  —  a  practice,  though 
modified,  which  recalls  to  us  that  horrid  one  mentioned  by  Herodotus, 
where  all  women  were  for  once  at  least  the  property  of  the  man  who 
sought  them  in  Mylitta's  temple."  —  ("Rivers  of  Life,"  Forlong,  Lon- 
don, 1883,  vol.  i.  p.  91.) 

The  following  are  Frazer's  views  on  this  subject:  ''The  mistletoe 
was  viewed  as  the  seat  of  life  of  the  oak.     The  conception  of  the  mistle- 


102  SCATA.LOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

toe  as  the  seat  of  life  of  the  oak  would  naturally  be  suggested  to  primi- 
tive people  by  the  observation  that  while  tlie  oak  is  deciduous,  the 
mistletoe  which  grows  on  it  is  evergreen.  In  winter,  the  sight  of  its 
fresh  foliage  among  the  bare  branches  must  have  been  hailed  by  the 
worshippers  of  the  tree  as  a  sign  that  the  divine  life  which  had  ceased 
to  animate  the  branches  yet  survived  in  the  mistletoe,  as  the  heart  of 
the  sleeper  still  beats  when  h4s  body  is  motionless.  Hence,  when  the 
jj;od  had  to  be  killed,  when  the  sacred  tree  had  to  be  burnt,  it  was 
necessary  to  begin  by  breaking  off  the  mistletoe,  for  so  long  as  the 
mistletoe  remained  intact,  the  oak  (so  people  thought)  was  invulner- 
able, —  all  the  blows  of  their  knives  and  axes  would  glance  harmless 
from  its  surface.  But  once  tear  from  the  oak  its  sacred  heart,  the 
mistletoe,  and  the  tree  nodded  to  its  fall."  —  ("  The  Golden  Bough," 
James  G.  Frazer,  M.  A.,  London,  1890,  vol.  ii.  pp,  295,  296.) 

This  train  of  reasoning  would  be  irrefutable,  as  it  is  most  logical, 
were  we  in  a  position  to  be  able  to  say  that  the  excision  of  the  fungus 
was  followed  by  the  felling  of  the  tree;  but,  unfortunately,  that  is 
just  what  we  are  not  able  to  determine.  As  a  surmise,  there  is  no 
impropriety  in  believing  that  such  excision  may  have  marked  the  oak 
for  destruction  at  some  future  day  ;  but  there  is  no  authority  that  we 
can  produce  at  this  time  to  justify  anything  more  than  a  surmise  in 
the  premises.  That  the  sacred  character  of  the  oak  was  due  to  the 
properties  discovered  in  the  mistletoe  is  quite  likely  in  view  of  all  the 
facts  already  presented. 

O'Curry,  who  appears  to  have  known  all  that  was  to  be  learned  on 
the  subject  of  Druidism,  admits  that  the  world  is  in  possession  of  very 
little  that  is  reliable ;  he  inclines  to  the  view  that  Druidism  was  of 
Eastern  origin.  (See  "  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Irish," 
Eugene  O'Curry,  London,  Edinburgh,  Dublin,  and  New  York,  1873.) 
He  contends  that  "  the  Sacred  Wand  "  of  the  Druids  was  made  of  the 
yew,  and  not  of  the  oak  or  mistletoe.  — (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  194.) 

Yallencey  did  not  believe  that  the  Persians  were  acquainted  with 
the  mistletoe  ;  at  least,  he  could  not  find  any  name  for  it  in  Persian. 
—  (See  Major  Charles  Yallencey,  "  Collectanea  de  Eebus  Hibeniicis," 
Dublin,  1774,  vol.  ii.  p.  433.) 

"  In  Cambodia,  when  a  man  perceives  a  certain  parasitic  plant  grow- 
ing on  a  tamarind-tree,  he  dresses  in  white  and  taking  a  new  earthen 
pot  climbs  the  tree  at  mid-day.  He  puts  the  plant  in  the  pot  and  lets 
the  whole  fall  to  the  ground.  Then  in  the  pot  he  makes  a  decoction 
which  renders  him  invulnerable."  —  (Aymonier,  "Notes  sur  les  Cou- 


THE  DRUIDICAL   USE   OF  THE   MISTLETOE.  103 

tiimes,  etc.,  des  Cambodgiens,"  quoted  in  "  The  Golden  Bough,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  286,  footnote.) 

"  It  was  that  only  which  is  found  upon  the  oak  which  the  Druids; 
employed ;  and  being  a  parasitic  plant,  the  seeds  of  which  are  not  sown 
by  the  hand  of  man,  it  was  well  adapted  for  the  purposes  of  supersti- 
tion."—  ("  Philosophy  of  Magic,"  Salverte,  vol.  i.  p.  229.) 

Much  testimony  may  be  adduced  to  show  that  the  mistletoe  was 
valued  as  an  aphrodisiac,  as  conducive  to  fertility,  as  sacred  to  love, 
and,  iu  general  terms,  an  excitant  of  the  genito-uriuary  organs,  which 
is  the  very  purpose  for  which  the  Siberian  and  North  American  medi- 
cine-men employed  the  fungus,  and  perhaps  the  very  reason  for  which 
both  fungus  and  mistletoe  were  excluded  from  the  Brahminical 
dietary. 

Brand  shows  that  mistletoe  "  was  not  unknown  in  the  religious 
ceremonies  of  the  ancients,  particularly  the  Greeks,"  and  that  the  use 
of  it,  savoring  strongly  of  Druidism,  prevailed  at  the  Christmas  service 
of  York  Cathedral  down  to  our  own  day.  —  (See  in  Brand,  "  Popular 
Antiquities,"  London,  1849,  vol.  i.  p.  524.) 

The  merry  pastime  of  kissing  pretty  girls  under  the  Christmas 
mistletoe  seems  to  have  a  phallic  derivation.  "  This  very  old  custom 
has  descended  from  feudal  times,  but  its  real  origin  and  significance 
are  lost."  (**  Appleton's  American  Encyclopaedia.")  Brand  shows  that 
the  young  men  observed  the  custom  of  "  plucking  off  a  beiry  at  each 
kiss."  (Vol.  i.  p.  524.)  Perhaps,  in  former  times,  they  were  required 
to  swallow  the  berry.  The  deductions  of  a  recent  writer  merit 
attention  :  — 

"The  mistletoe  was  dedicated  to  Mylitta,  in  whose  worship  every 
woman  must  once  in  her  life  submit  to  the  sexual  embrace  of  a  stranger. 
When  she  concluded  to  perform  this  religious  duty  in  honor  of  her 
acknowledged  deity,  she  repaired  to  the  temple  and  placed  herself 
under  the  mistletoe,  thus  offering  herself  to  the  first  stranger  who 
solicited  her  favors.  The  modem  modification  of  the  ceremony  is  found 
in  the  practice  among  some  people  of  hanging  the  mistletoe,  at  certain 
seasons  of  the  year,  in  the  parlor  or  over  the  door,  when  the  woman 
entering  that  door,  or  found  standing  under  the  wreath,  must  kiss  the 
first  man  who  approaches  her  and  solicits  the  privilege."  ("  Phallic 
Worship,"  Robert  Allen  Campbell,  C.  E.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1888,  p.  202.) 

A  writer  in  "  Notes  and  Queries  "  (Jan.  3,  1852,  vol.  v.  p.  13)  quotes 
Nares  to  the  effect  that  "the  maid  who  was  not  kissed  under  it  at 
Christmas  would  not  be  married  iu  that  year."     But  another  writer 


104  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

(Feb.  28,  1852,  same  volume)  points  out  that  "  we  should  refer  the 
custom  to  the  Scandinaviau  mythology,  wherein  the  mistletoe  is  dedi- 
cated to  Friga,  the  Venus  of  the  Scandinavians."  ^ 

Grimm  speaks  of  Paltar  (Balder)  being  killed  by  the  stroke  of  a 
piece  of  mistletine,  but  ventures  upon  no  explanation.  —  ("Teutonic 
Mytholog}-,"  vol.  i.  p.  220,  article  "  Paltar.") 

"  Within  the  sanctuary  at  Nemi  grew  a  certain  tree  of  which  no 
branch  might  be  broken.  Only  a  runaway  slave  was  allowed  to 
break  off,  if  he  could,  one  of  its  boughs.  Success  in  the  attempt  enti- 
tled him  to  fight  the  priest  in  single  combat,  and  if  he  slew  him  he 
reigned  in  his  stead  with  the  title  of  King  of  the  "Wood  (Rex  Nemoren- 
sis.)  Tradition  averred  that  the  fatal  branch  was  that  'golden  bough' 
which  at  the  Sibyl's  bidding,  ^neas  plucked  before  he  essayed  the 
perilous  journey  to  the  world  of  the  dead."  —  ("  The  Golden  Bough," 
Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  4,  article  "The  Arician  Grove,") 

"  A  plant  associated  with  the  death  of  one  of  their  greatest  and 
best-beloved  gods  must  have  been  supremely  sacred  to  all  of  Teutonic 
blood  ;  and  yet  this  opinion  of  its  sacredness  was  shared  by  the  Celtic 
nations."  (Grimm,  "Teutonic  Mythology,"  vol.  iii.  p.  1205.)  "Our 
herbals  divide  mistletoe  into  those  of  the  oak,  hazel,  and  pear  tree  ; 
and  none  of  them  must  be  let  touch  the  ground."  —  (Idem,  p.  1207.) 

Another  writer  ("  Notes  and  Queries,"  2d  series,  vol.  iv.  p.  506)  says  : 
"As  it  was  supposed  to  possess  the  mystic  power  of  giving  fertility  and 
a  power  to  preserve  from  poison,  the  pleasant  ceremony  of  kissing  under 
the  mistletoe  may  have  some  reference  to  this  belief." 

In  vol.  iii.  p.  343,  it  is  stated  :  "  A  AVorcestershire  farmer  was  accus- 
tomed to  take  down  his  bough  of  mistletoe  and  give  it  to  the  cow  that 
calved  first  after  New  Year's  Day.  This  was  supposed  to  insure 
good  luck  to  the  whole  dairy.  Cows,  it  may  be  remarked,  as  well  as 
sheep,  will  devour  mistletoe  with  avidity." 

And  still  another  (in  2d  series,  vol.  vi.  p.  523)  recognizes  that  "the 
mistletoe  was  sacred  to  the  heathen  Goddess  of  Beauty,"  and  "it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  mistletoe,  though  it  formerly  had  a  place  among  the 
evergreens  employed  in  the  Christian  decorations,  was  subsequently 
excluded."  This  exclusion  he  accounts  for  thus  :  "  It  is  also  certain 
that,  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the  church,  many  festivities  not  at  all  tend- 
ing to  edification  (the  practice  of  mutual  kissing  among  the  rest)  had 

1  It  was  the  only  plant  in  the  woihl  which  could  harm  Baldur,  the  son  of  Odin 
and  Frif^a.  When  a  branch  of  it  struck  him  he  fell  dead.  —  (See  in  "  Bulfinch's 
Mythology,"  revised  by  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale,  Boston,  1883,  p.  428.) 


THE  DRUIDICAL  USE   OF   THE   MISTLETOE,  105 

gradually  crept  in  and  established  themselves,  so  that,  at  a  certain 
part  of  the  service,  'statim  clerus,  ipseque  populus  per  basia  blande 
sese  invicim  oscularetur.'  " 

This  author  cites  Hone,  Hook,  Moroni,  Bescherelle,  Ducange,  and 
others.  Finally  (in  the  3d  series,  vol.  vii.  p.  76),  an  inquirer  asks,  "  How 
came  it  in  Shakspeare's  time  to  be  considered  '  baleful,'  and,  in  our 
days,  the  most  mirth-provoking  of  plants  1 "  And  still  another  corre- 
spondent, in  the  same  series  (vol.  vii.  p.  237),  claims  that  "mistletoe 
will  produce  abortion  in  the  female  of  the  deer  or  dog." 

"  Sir  John  Ollbach,  in  his  dissertation  concerning  mistletoe,  which  he 
strongly  recommends  as  a  medicine  very  likely  to  subdue  not  only  the 
epilepsy,  but  all  other  convulsive  disorders,  observes  that  this  beauti- 
ful plant  must  have  been  designed  by  the  Almighty  for  other  and  more 
noble  purposes  than  barely  to  feed  thrushes  or  to  be  hung  up  supersti- 
tiously  in  houses  to  drive  away  evil  spirits.  He  tells  (p.  12)  that 
*  the  high  veneration  in  which  the  Druids  were  anciently  held  by  the 
people  of  all  ranks  proceeded  in  a  great  measure  from  the  wonderful 
cures  they  wrought  by  means  of  the  mistletoe  of  the  oak ;  this  tree 
being  sacred  to  them,  but  none  so  that  had  not  the  mistletoe  upon 
them.'  Mr.  F.  "Williams,  dating  from  Pembroke,  Jan.  28,  1791,  tells 
lis,  in  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine '  for  February  that  year,  that 
'"Guidhel,"  mistletoe,  a  magical  shrub,  appeared  to  be  the  forbidden 
tree  in  the  middle  of  the  trees  of  Eden ;  for,  in  the  Edda,  the  mistle- 
toe is  said  to  be  Balder's  death,  who  yet  perished  through  blindness 
and  a  woman.'"  —  (Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1872, 
vol.  i.  p.  519,  article  "  Evergreen -decking  at  Christmas.") 

FORMER    EMPLOYMENT    OP    AN    INFUSION    OR    DECOCTION    OF    MISTLETOE. 

That  an  infusion  or  decoction  of  the  plant  was  once  in  use  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  narrated  by  John  Eliot  Howard  :  "  Water,  in 
which  the  sacred  mistletoe  had  been  immersed,  was  given  to  or  sprinkled 
upon  the  people."  —  ("  The  Druids  and  their  Religion,"  John  Eliot 
Howard,  in  "Transactions  of  Victoria  Institute,"  vol.  xiv.  p.  118,  quot- 
ing "  Le  gui  de  chene  et  les  Druides,"  E.  Magdaleine,  Paris,  1877.) 

Montfixucon  says  of  the  Druids :  "  lis  croient  que  les  animaux 
steriles  deviennent  f^conds  en  buvant  de  I'eau  degui." —  ("  L'antiquito 
Expliquee,  Paris,  1722,  tome  2,  part  2,  p.  436,  quoting  and  translating 
Pliny.) 

"  The  misselto,  or  '  Uil-ice,'  was  required  to  be  taken,  if  possible, 
from  the  Jovine  tree  when  in  its  prime ;  but  it  was  rare  to  find  it  on 


100  SCATALOCIC   KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

any  oak.  If  obtained  from  one  about  thirty-6ve  years  old,  and  taken 
in  a  potion,  it  conferred  fertility  on  men,  women,  and  children."  — 
("Rivers  of  Life,"  Forlong,  vol.  ii.  p.  355.) 

Eugene  O'Curry  speaks  of  the  Irish  Druids  having  a  "  drink  of  ob- 
livion," the  composition  of  which  has  not,  however,  come  down  to  us. 
(See  "Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Irish,"  vol.  ii.  p,  198.) 
O'Curry  calls  this  drink  of  oblivion  a  "  Druidical  charm,"  and  a  "  Dru- 
idical  incantation."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  226.)^ 

See  notes  in  this  monograph  on  the  Hindu  Lingam. 

THE   MISTLETOE   ALLEGED   TO    HAVE   BEEN    HELD   SACRED   BY   THE 
MOUND-BUILDERS. 

An  American  writer  says  that  among  the  Mound-builders  the  mistle- 
toe was  "  the  holiest  and  most  rare  of  evergreens,"  and  that  when 
human  sacrifices  were  offered  to  sun  and  moon  the  victim  was  covered 
with  mistletoe,  which  was  burnt  as  an  incense.  (Pidgeon,  "  Dee-coo- 
dah,"  N^ew  York,  1853,  p.  91  et  seq.)  Pidgeon  claimed  to  receive  his 
knowledge  from  Indians  versed  in  the  traditions  and  lore  of  their 
tribes.*^ 

Mrs.  Eastman  presents  a  drawing  of  what  may  be  taken  as  the  altar 
of  Haokah,  the  anti-natural  god  of  the  Sioux,  in  which  is  a  representa- 
tion of  a  "large  fungus  that  grows  on  trees"  (query,  mistletoe?), 
which,  if  eaten  by  an  animal,  will  cause  its  death." 

THE   MISTLETOE   FESTIVAL   OP   THE   MEXICANS. 

That  the  Mexicans  had  a  reverence  for  the  mistletoe  would  seem  to 
be  assured.  They  had  a  mistletoe  festival  In  October  they  cele- 
brated the  festival  of  the  Neypachtly,  or  bad  eye,  which  was  a  plant 
growing  on  trees  and  hanging  from  them,  gray  with  the  dampness  of 

^  benormant  speaks  of  "  certain  enchanted  drinks,  .  .  .  which  doubtless  con- 
tained medicinal  drugs,  as  a  cure  for  diseases."  —  ("Chaldean  Magic,"  London, 
1877,  p.  41.) 

2  See  also  Ellen  Russell  Emerson,  "  Indian  Myths,"  Boston,  1884,  p.  331,  wherein 
Pidgeon  is  quoted. 

8  "Legends  of  the  Sioux,"  Eastman,  New  York,  1849,  p.  210.  Readers  inter- 
ested in  the  subject  of  Indian  altars  will  find  descriptions,  with  colored  plates,  in 
"The  Snake  Dance  of  the  Moquis"  (London  and  New  York,  1884),  by  the  author 
of  this  volume  ;  and  in  the  elaborate  monograph  by  Surgeon  Washington  Matthews, 
in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  "Washington,  D.  C,  1888. 


THE   DRUIDICAL  USE   OF  THE  MISTLETOE.  lOT 

rain ;  especially  did  it  grow  on  the  different  kinds  of  oak.^     The  in- 
formant says  he  can  give  no  explanation  of  this  festival. 

VESTIGES    OF    DRUIDICAL    RITES    AT    THE    PRESENT    DAY. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  detect  vestiges  of  Druidical  rites  tena- 
ciously adhering  to  the  altered  life  of  modern  civilization. 

In  the  department  of  Seine-et-Oise,  twelve  leagues  from  Paris  (says 
a  recent  writer),  when  a  child  had  a  rupture  (hernia)  he  was  brought 
imder  a  certain  oak,  and  some  women,  who  no  doubt  earned  a  living 
in  that  trade,  danced  around  the  oak,  muttering  spell-words  till  the 
child  was  cured.  —  that  is,  dead.  —  ("Notes  and  Queries,"  5th  series, 
vol.  vii.  p.  163.) 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  Druids  ascribed  this  very  medi- 
cal quality  to  the  mistletoe  of  the  oak. 

"  In  Brittany  a  festival  for  the  mistletoe  is  still  kept.  .  .  .  The 
people  there  call  it  '  touzon  ar  gros,'  —  '  the  herb  of  the  cross.'  "  — 
("Commonplace  Book,"  Buckle,  vol,  ii.  of  his  Works,  p.  440,  London, 
1872.) 

Mistletoe  has  been  burned  in  England  in  love  divinations.  —  (See 
Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1872,  vol.  iii.  p.  358,  article 
"  Divination  by  Flowers.") 

Frommann  enumerates  mistletoe  among  "  Recentiorura  ad  fascinum 
remedia.  .  .  .  Viscum  corylinum  et  tiliaceum  "  (hazel  or  filbert  and 
linden  trees).  The  genitalia  of  the  bewitched  person  were  anointed 
with  an  ointment  prepared  from  the  hazel  mistletoe  to  untie  "liga- 
tures." (See  Frommann,  "  Tractatus  de  Facinatione,"  Nuremberg, 
1675,  pp.  938,  957,  958,  965.) 

"  We  find  that  persons  in  Sweden  who  are  afflicted  with  the  falling 
sickness  carry  with  them  a  knife  having  a  handle  of  oak  mistletoe,  to 
ward  off  attacks.  A  piece  of  mistletoe  hung  round  the  neck  would 
ward  off  other  sicknesses.  We  have  Culpepper's  authority  for  say- 
ing *  it  is  excellent  good  for  the  grief  of  the  sinew,  itch,  sores,  and 
tooth-ache,  the  biting  of  mad  dogs,  and  venemous  beasts,  and  that  it 
purgeth  choler  very  gently.'  Grimm  notes  that  it  was  with  a  branch 
of  mistletoe  that  Balder  was  killed.  .  .  .  The  Kadeir  Taliasin  says  that 

*  "  Neypaclitly  quiere  decir  '  mal  ojo  ; '  es  una  yerva  que  nace  en  los  arboles  y 
cuelga  de  ellos,  parda  con  la  humedad  de  las  aguas,  especialmente  se  cria  en  los  en- 
cinales  y  robles."  —  (Diego  Duran,  vol.  iii.  cap.  16,  p.  391^,  manuscript  copy  in 
the  Library  of  Congress,  Washington,  D.  C.) 


108  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

the  mistletoe  was  one  of  the  ingredients  in  the  aiven  a  gwyhodeu,  or 
water  of  inspiration,  science,  and  immortality,  which  the  goddess  Kod 
prepared  in  her  cauldron.  Witches  were  thought  to  have  no  power  to 
hurt  those  who  bore  mistletoe  round  their  neck.  Sir  Thomas  Browne 
speaks  of  the  virtues  of  mistletoe  in  cases  of  epilepsy." — ("Folk- 
Medicine,"  Black,  London,  1883,  p.  196.) 

The  same  belief  in  Waters  of  Life,  science,  immortalitj',  etc.,  seems 
to  obtain  among  the  Slav  nations,  who  also  speak  in  their  myths  of 
"  the  crazy  weed,"  which  may,  perhaps,  be  classified  with  the  weed  of 
the  Borgie  well,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  "  set  a'  the  Camerslang  fo'k 
wrang  i'  th'  head."  —  (See  "  Myths  and  Folk-Tales  of  the  Russians, 
Western  Slavs,  and  Magyars,"  Jeremiah  Curtin,  Boston,  Mass.,  1890). 

The  mistletoe,  especially  that  from  the  linden  and  the  oak,  was  enu- 
merated by  Etmuller  among  the  cures  for  epilepsy  ("  tiliaceum  et 
quercinum  ")  ;  others  recommended  that  from  the  elder  or  willow. 
For  the  same  disease,  on  the  same  page,  "  zibethum  "  was  prescribed. 
(See  Etmuller,  "Opera  Omnia,"  Lyons,  1690,  vol.  i.  p.  198  :  "Com- 
ment. Ludovic") 

The  mistletoe  of  the  juniper,  gathered  in  the  month  of  May,  was 
good  for  eye-water.  "  Maio  mense  instar  rausci  adnascitur  iuservit 
aquae  ophthalmica)."  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  i.  p.  84,  "  Schroderi  Dilucidati 
Phytologia.") 

Fungi  of  different  kinds  dried  were  used  as  styptics.  —  (Idem,  p.  70.) 

The  fungus  of  the  oak  was  especially  good  for  this  purpose.  — 
(Idem,  p.  127.) 

The  mistletoe  of  the  oak  was  regarded  as  of  special  value  in  all 
uterine  troubles,  hemorrhages,  suppression  of  the  menses,  etc.  —  (Idem, 
p.  127.) 

In  the  Myth  of  Kale-wala  a  young  maiden  is  represented  as  becom- 
ing pregnant  by  eating  a  berry.  (See  "  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion," 
Andrew  Lang,  London,  1887,  vol.  ii.  p.  179.) 

We  may  ask  the  question,  what  kind  of  a  berry  this  was.  Reference 
may  also  be  had  to  what  Lang  has  to  say  on  the  mythical  conceptions 
alleged  to  have  been  induced  by  juniper  and  other  berries.  —  (Idem, 
p.  180.) 

The  "  mistletoe  of  the  oake "  was  administered  internally  against 
"epilepsie." —  ("Most  Excellent  and  Most  Approved  Remedies,"  Lon- 
don, 1654,  p.  14.) 

"A  ring  made  of  mistletoe  is  esteemed  in  Sweden  as  an  amulet.  "  — 
("Folk-Medicine,"  Black,  p.  173.) 


THE  DRUIDICAL  USE   OF  THE  MISTLETOE.  109 

In  Murrayshire,  Scotland,  "  at  the  full  moon  in  March,  the  inhabitants 
cut  withies  of  the  mistletoe  or  ivy,  make  circles  of  them,  keep  them  all 
the  year,  and  pretend  to  cure  hectics  and  other  troubles  with  them."  — 
(Drand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  151,  article  "Moon.") 

"  In  North  Germany,  where  the  old  Teutonic  cult  still  lingers,  the 
villagers  run  about  on  Christmas,  striking  the  doors  and  windows 
with  hammers,  and  shouting,*  Guthyl !  Guthyl ! '  —  plainly  the  Druidi- 
cal  name  for  mistletoe  used  by  Pliny.  In  Holstein,  the  people  call  the 
mistletoe  '  the  branch  of  spectres ; '  .  .  .  they  think  it  cures  fresh 
wounds  and  ensures  success  in  hunting."  Stukeley  is  quoted  to  show 
that  the  veneration  for  the  plant  prevailed  at  the  Cathedral  of  York 
down  to  the  most  recent  times.  —  (Encyclopaedia  Metropolitana.) 

"  Misseltoe  of  the  oake  drunk  cureth  certainly  this  disease  "  (epi- 
lepsy). —  ("  The  Poor  Man's  Physician,"  John  Moncrief,  Edinburgh, 
1716,  p.  71.) 

Still  another  writer  reckons  it  a  specific  in  epilepsy ;  also  in  apo- 
plexy, vertigo,  to  prevent  convulsions,  and  to  assist  children  in  teeth- 
ing, being  worn  round  their  necks.  "  We  have  accounts  of  strange 
superstitious  customs  used  in  gathering  it,  and  that  if  they  are  not 
complied  with  it  loses  its  virtue.  This  is  by  some  conjectured  to  be 
the  golden  bough  which  ^Eneas  made  use  of  to  introduce  him  to  the 
Elysian  regions,  as  is  beautifully  described  in  Virgil's  sixth  vEneid."  — 
("  Complete  English  Dispensatory,"  John  Quincy,  M.D.,  London, 
1730,  p.  134.) 

Culpepper  wrote  that  the  mistletoe,  especially  that  growing  upon 
the  oak,  was  beneficial  in  the  falling  sickness,  in  apoplexy,  and  in 
palsy ;  also  as  a  preventive  of  witchcraft ;  in  the  last-named  case  it 
should  be  worn  about  the  neck.  He  did  not  seem  to  know  anything 
of  the  origin  of  these  ideas  and  practices.  —  (See  Richard  Culpepper, 
"The  English  Physician,"  London,  1765,  p.  217.) 

Pomet,  in  his  "  History  of  Drugs,"  London,  1737,  describes  agaric 
as  an  excrescence  "  found  on  the  larch,  oak,  etc.  .  .  .  The  best  agaric 
is  that  from  the  Levant ;  "  only  that  "  which  the  antients  used  to  call 
the  female  should  be  used  in  medicine."  It  was  prescribed  in  "  all 
distempers  proceeding  from  gross  humors  and  obstructions," — such  as 
epilepsy,  vertigo,  mania,  etc. ;  and  this  partly  on  the  sympathetic  or 
similia  similibus  principle. 

In  one  of  the  preparations  for  epilepsy,  said  by  Beckherius  to  have 
been  recommended  by  Galen,  occurs  "  Agaricus  Viscus  Querci."  —  (See 
Danielus  Beckherius,  "  Medicus  Microcosmus,"  London,  1660,  p.  208.) 


110  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

**  When  found  growing  on  the  oak,  the  mistletoe  represented  man," 
—  (Opinion  of  the  French  writer  lieynaud,  in  his  article  "  Druidism," 
quoted  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica.) 

Notwithstanding  this  abundant  proof,  which  might,  if  necessary,  be 
swollen  in  volume,  of  the  survival  in  domestic  medicine,  as  well  as  in 
medical  practice  of  a  more  pretentious  character,  of  the  use  of  the 
mistletoe,  more  particularly  in  cases  of  epilepsy,  there  is  no  instance  of 
its  employment  noticed  in  "  Saxon  Leechdoms." 

The  explanation  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  that  compilation  was 
rather  exponential  of  the  knowledge  still  possessed  by  the  monks  of 
classical  therapeutics  than  of  the  skill  attained  by  the  Saxons  them- 
selves ;  there  are  pages  of  quotations  from  Sextus  Placitus  and  other 
authorities,  bnt  scarcely  anything  to  show  that  the  ideas  of  the  Saxons 
themselves  were  represented. 

THE   LINGUISTICS   OF    THE   MISTLETOE. 

Other  curious  instances  of  survival  present  themselves  in  the  lin- 
guistics of  the  subject.  The  French  word  "  gui,"  meaning  mistletoe, 
is  not  of  Latin,  but  of  Druidical  derivation,  and  so  the  Spanish  "  agui- 
naldo,"  meaning  Christmas  or  Xew  Year's  present,  conserves  the  cr}', 
slightly  altered,  of  the  Druid  priest  to  the  "  gui "  at  the  opening  of 
the  new  year. 

" Aguillanneuf,  et  plus  clairement,  'an  gui,  I'an  neuf,*  ou  bien 
encore, '  I'anguil  I'an  neuf  '  "  —  (Le  Roux  de  Lincy,  Livre  des  Proverbes 
Fran9ais,  1848,  Paris,  tome  1,  p.  2,  quoted  in  Buckle's  "Commonplace 
Book,"  vol.  ii.  p.  440.) 

"The  next  business  was  to  arrange  for  the  collection  of  the  sacred 
plant,  and  bards  were  sent  forth  in  all  directions  to  summon  the 
people  to  the  great  religious  ceremony.  The  words  of  the  proclama- 
tion are  believed  to  survive  in  the  custom  which  prevails,  especially  at 
Chartres,  the  old  metropolis  of  the  Druids,  of  soliciting  presents  on  the 
New  Year,  with  the  words  *  an  gui  I'an  neuf  "  —  ("  Le  Gui  de  Chene 
et  les  Druides,"  Magdaleine,  quoted  by  John  Elliot  Howard,  in 
"Victoria  Society  Transactions,"  vol.   xiv.) 

"The  Celtic  name  for  the  oak  was  'gue,'  or  *gviy.'  "  —  (Brand,  Pop. 
Ant.,  vol.  i.  p.  458.) 

A  writer  in  "Notes  and  Queries"  shows  (vol.  ii.  p.  163)  that  the 
word  mistletoe  is  "  le  gui "  in  French  ;  the  continental  Druid  was 
called   Gui,  or   a   Guy,  from   "cuidare,"   whence    "Guide."     At   the 


THE  DRUIDICAL  USE   OF  THE  MISTLETOE.  Ill 

present  day,  while  the  mistletoe  itself  is  a  charin,  the  name  is  a  term 
of  opprobium,  — guy,  in  English. 

M.  C.  H.  Gaidoz  takes  exception  to  this  interpretation.  In  his 
opinion,  the  words  "aguinaldo"  and  "k  gui  I'an  neuf"  are  to  be  de- 
rived from  the  Latin  "  ad  calendas."  —  (Personal  letter,  dated  Paris, 
France,  March  11,  1889.) 


112  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 


XVIT. 

COW  DUNG  AND   COW   URINE   IN   RELIGION. 

rriHE  sacrificial  value  of  cow  dung  and  cow  urine  throughout  India 
-^  and  Thibet  is  much  greater  than  the  reader  might  be  led  to  infer 
from  the  brief  citation  already  noted  from  Max  M  tiller. 

"  Hindu  merchants  in  Bokhara  now  lament  loudly  at  the  sight  of  a 
piece  of  cow's  flesh,  and  at  the  same  time  mix  with  their  food,  that  it 
may  do  them  good,  the  urine  of  a  sacred  cow,  kept  in  that  place."  ^ 
(Erman,  "Siljeria,"  London,  1848,  vol.  i.  p.  384.) 

Picart  naiTates  that  the  Brahmins  fed  grain  to  a  sacred  cow,  and 
afterward  searched  in  the  ordure  for  the  sacred  grains,  which  they 
picked  out  whole,  drying  and  administering  them  to  the  sick,  not 
merely  as  a  medicine,  but  as  a  sacred  thing.* 

Not  only  among  the  people  of  the  lowlands,  but  among  those  of 
the  foot-hills  of  the  Himalayas  as  well,  do  these  rites  find  place ;  "  the 
very  dung  of  the  cow  is  eaten  as  an  atonement  for  sin,  and  its  urine  is 
used  in  worship." — (Notes  on  the  Hill  Tribes  of  the  Neilgherries, 
Short,  Trans.  Ethnol.  Society,  London,  1868,  p.  '268.) 

"  The  greatest,  or,  at  any  rate,  the  most  convenient  of  all  purifiers 
is  the  urine  of  a  cow ;  .  .  .  Images  are  sprinkled  with  it.  No  man 
of  any  pretensions  to  piety  or  cleanliness  would  pass  a  cow  in  the 
act  of  staling  without  receiving  the  holy  stream  in  his  hand  and  sip- 

^  Apres  avoir  donne  du  riz  en  pot,  h,  manger  aux  vaches  ils  vont  fouiller  dans  la 
bouze  et  en  retirent  les  grains  qu'ils  trouvent  entiers.  lis  font  seclier  ces  grains  et 
les  donnent  a  leurs  malades,  non  seulement  comme  nn  reniude  mais  encore  comme 
une  chose  sainte.  —  (Picart,  "  Coutumes  et  Ceremonies  religieuses,"  etc.,  Amster- 
dam, 1729,  vol.  vii.  p.  18.) 

This  is  neither  better  nor  worse  than  the  custom  of  the  Indians  of  Texas, 
Florida,  and  California,  herein  before  described. 

Chez  les  Indiens,  la  bouze  de  la  vache  est  trts-sainte.  —  (Picart,  idem,  vol.  vi. 
part  2,  pp.  191-193.) 

Picart  also  discloses  that  the  Banians  swear  by  a  cow.  —  {Idem,  vol.  vii.  p.  16.) 

A  small  quantity  of  the  urine  (of  the  cow)  is  daily  sipped  by  some  (of  tlie 
Hindus.)  — (Asiatic  Researches,  Calcutta,  1805,  vol.  viii.  p.  81.) 


cow   DUNG  AND   COW   URINE   IN   RELIGION.  113 

ping  a  few  drops.  ...  If  the  animal  be  retentive,  a  pious  expectant 
will  impatiently  apply  his  finger,  and  by  judicious  tickling  excite  the 
grateful  How."  — (Moor's  "Hindu  Pantheon,"  London,  1810,  p.  143.) 

See,  also,  note  from  Forlong,  under  "Initiation,"  p.  IGl. 

"It  may  be  noted  that,  according  to  Lajarde,  *  cow's-water '  origi- 
nally meant  rain-water,  the  clouds  being  spoken  of  as  cows.  I  give 
this  for  what  it  is  worth.  Your  collection  of  facts  goes  strongly  against 
the  explanation."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Prof.  W.  Ptobertson  Smith, 
dated  Christ  College,  Cambridge,  England,  August  11,  1888.) 

Speaking  of  the  sacrifice  called  Poojah,  Maurice  says  :  "  The  Brah- 
inan  prepares  a  place,  which  is  purified  with  dried  cow-dung,  with 
which  the  pavement  is  spread,  and  the  room  is  sprinkled  with  the 
urine  of  the  same  animal."  —  (Maurice,  "  Indian  Antiquities,"  London, 
1800,  voh  i.  p.  77.) 

"  As  in  India,  so  in  Persia,  the  urine  of  the  cow  is  used  in  cere- 
monies of  purification,  during  which  it  is  drunk."  —  ("  Zoological  My- 
thology," Angelo  de  Gubernatis,  London,  1872,  vol.  i.  p.  95,  quoting 
from  Anquetil  du  Perron,  "Zendavesta,"  ii.  p.  245.) 

Dubois,  in  his  chapter  "  Restoration  to  the  Caste,"  says  that  a 
Hindu  penitent  "must  drink  the  panchakaryam,  —  a  word  which  lit- 
erally signifies  the  five  things,  namely,  milk,  butter,  curd,  dung,  and 
urine,  all  mixed  together."     And  he  adds :  — 

"  The  urine  of  the  cow  is  held  to  be  the  most  efficacious  of  any  fin- 
purifying  all  imaginable  uncleanness.  I  have  often  seen  the  supei-sti- 
tious  Hindu  accompanying  these  animals  when  in  the  pasture,  and 
watching  the  moment  for  receiving  the  urine  as  it  fell,  in  vessels  which 
he  had  brought  for  the  purpose,  to  carry  it  home  in  a  fresh  state ;  or, 
catching  it  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  to  bedew  his  face  and  all  his 
body.  When  so  used  it  removes  all  external  impurity,  and  when 
taken  internall}',  which  is  very  common,  it  cleanses  all  within."  — 
(Abbe  Dubois,  "People  of  India,"  London,  1817,  p.  29.) 

Very  frequently  the  excrement  is  first  reduced  to  ashes.  The  monks 
of  Chivem,  called  Pandarones,  smear  their  faces,  breasts,  and  arms  with 
the  ashes  of  cow  dung  ■  they  run  through  the  streets  demanding  alms, 
very  much  as  the  Zuui  actors  demanded  a  feast,  and  chant  the  praises 
of  Chivem,  while  they  carry  a  bundle  of  peacock  feathers  in  the  hand, 
and  wear  the  lingam  at  the  neck.^ 

*  "  Les  moines  de  Chivem  sont  nommes  Pandarones.  lis  se  barbouillent  le 
visage,  la  poitrine,  et  les  bras  avec  des  cendres  de  bouse  de  vache  ;  ils  parcouient  les 
rues,  demandent  Taumdne  et  chantent  les  lonanges  de  Chivem,  en  portant  un  pa- 


114  SCATALOGIC   RITES    OF   ALL   NATIONS. 


COW    DUNG    ALSO    USED    BY    THE    ISRAELITES. 

"  The  tribes  had  not  many  feelings  in  common  when  they  came  to  be 
writers  and  told  us  what  they  thought  of  each  other.  As  a  rule,  they 
bitterly  reviled  each  other's  gods  and  temples.  .  .  .  Judeans  called 
the  Samaritan  temple,  where  calves  and  bulls  were  holy,  in  a  word  of 
Greek  derivation,  '  Pelethos  IS'aos,'  '  the  dung-hill  temple.'  .  .  .  The 
Samaritans,  in  return,  called  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  '  tlie  house  of 
dung.'"  —  ("Rivers  of  Life,"  Forlong,  vol,  i.  p.  1G2.) 

Commentators  would  be  justified  in  believing  that  these  terms  pre- 
serve the  fact  of  there  having  been  in  these  places  of  worship  the 
same  veneration  for  dung  that  is  to  be  found  to  this  day  among  the 
peoples  of  the  East  Indies. 

In  another  place  Dulaure  calls  attention  to  the  similar  use  among 
the  Hebrews  of  the  ashes  of  the  dung  of  the  red  heifer  as  an  expiatory 
sacrifice.^ 

In  one  of  the  Hindu  fasts  the  devotee  adopts  these  disgusting  ex- 
creta as  his  food.  On  the  fourth  day,  "  his  disgusting  beverage  is  the 
urine  of  the  cow  ;  the  fifth,  the  excrement  of  that  holy  animal  is  his 
allotted  food."  —  (Maurice,  "  Indian  Antiquities,"  London,  1800,  vol.  v. 
p.  222.) 

"  I  do  not  think  that  you  can  lay  weight  on  the  fact  that  in  Israel, 
when  a  victim  was  entirely  burned,  the  dung  was  not  exempted 
from  the  fire.  I  think  this  only  means  that  the  victim  was  not  cleared 
of  offal,  as  in  sacrifices  that  were  eaten."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Prof. 
W.  Robertson  Smith,  Christ  College,  Cambridge,  England.  ) 

"Refert  etiam  Waltherns  Schulzius  ("  Oest-Indianische  Reise,"  lib.  3, 
cap,  10,  l,m.  188,  seq.)  certam  Indorum  sectam  Gioghi  dictam  nullum 
assumere  cibum,  nisi  fimo  vaccino  coctum ;  capillos  et  faciem  Croco  et 
Stercore  vaccino  inungunt ;  nemo  etiam  in  banc  societatem  admittitur 
nisi  antea  per  longum  temporis  spatium  Corpus  suum  hoc  stercore 
nutriverit,  etc."  —  (Schurig,  "  Chylologia,"  p.  783,  quoted  in  "Biblio- 
theca  Scatalogica,"  pp.  93-96.) 

Etmuller,  "Opera  Omnia,"  Commentar.  Ludovic,  Lyons,  1690,  vol, 

quet  de  plumes  de  paon  a  la  main  et  le  lingam  pendu  au  cou.'" —  (Dulaure,  "Des 

Divinites  Generatrices,"  Paris,  1825,  p.  105.) 

^  "  Les  Hebreux  sacrifiaient  et  faisaient  brfiler  la  vache  rousse,  dont  les  cendres 

melees  avec  de  I'eau  servaient  aux  expiations."  —  {Idem,  cap.  i.  pp.  23,  24.) 
"  They  shall  burn  in  the  fire  their  dung."  —  (Levit.  xvi.  27.) 
"  Her  blood  with  her  dung  shall  he  burn."  —  (Numbers  xix.  5.) 


cow   DUNG  AND   COW   URINE   IN   EELIGION.  115 

ii.  pp.  171,  172,  says  that  the  Benjani,  an  Oriental  sect,  believers  in  the 
Transmigration  of  Souls,  save  the  dung  of  their  cows,  gathering  it  up 
in  their  hands. 

Rosinus  Lentilius,  in  the  "  Ephemeridum  Physico-Medicorum,"  Leip- 
sig,  1694,  quotes  from  the  Itinerary  of  Tavernier,  lib.  1,  cap.  18,  in 
regard  to  the  Scybolophagi  Indorum,  who,  in  pursuance  of  vows  to 
eat  flesh  only,  scrape  up  the  droppings  of  horses,  bulls,  cows,  and 
sheep.  "  Scybolophagi  Indorum,  de  qua  Tavernier,  quod  Benjan.c 
aliseque  mulieres  voto  semet  obstringant  soli  manducationi  quisqui- 
liarura,  quas  in  pecorum,  equorum,  boum,  vaccarum,  stercoribus  rus- 
patione  sedula  conquirunt.  ,  .  .  Nee  proprie  de  Homerda  seu  humanis 
excrementis,  quibus  Indorum  nonnulli  cibos  condire,  iisque  ptarmici 
pulvere  vice  uti,  quin  et  medicamentis,  ceu  panaceam,  coramiscere, 
non  aversuntur." 

No  mention  is  made  by  Marco  Polo  of  the  use  by  the  people  of  India 
of  cow-dung  or  urine  in  any  of  their  religious  ceremonies,  excepting  one 
example  cited  under  the  head  of  "  Industries."  But  the  antiquity  of 
the  rite  is  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  it  is  frequently  alluded  to 
in  the  oldest  of  the  canonical  books  of  the  people  of  India. 

"  Regarding  the  installation  of  Yudhisthira  (the  oldest  son  of  Pandu 
and  eldest  brother  of  the  Pandavas),  who  became  Maharajah  after  the 
defeat  and  death  of  the  Kauravas  on  the  field  of  Kuruk-shetra,  the  Brah- 
minical  authors  of  the  Maha-Bharata,  in  its  present  form,  descril>e 
among  the  ceremonies  used  on  the  occasion  the  following  one  : "  (Con- 
densed from  the  text  of  J.  Talboys  Wheeler,  "  History  of  India," 
"  The  Vedic  Period  and  the  Maha-Bharata,"  vol.  i.  p.  371.)  "  After  this, 
the  five  purifying  articles  which  are  produced  from  the  sacred  cow  — 
namely,  milk,  the  curds,  ghee,  the  urine,  and  the  ordure  —  were  brought 
up  by  Krishna  and  the  Maharaja  and  by  the  brothers  of  Yudhisthira, 
and  poured  by  them  over  the  heads  of  Yudhisthira  and  Draupadi." 

"The  appearance  of  Krishna  here  stamps  the  narrative  with  the 
characteristic  cultus  of  a  period  far  later  than  that  in  which  the  Vedic 
Aryans  had  used  the  cow  as  a  religious  symbol.  The  animal  was  now 
sacred  to  "Vishnu,  who  held  no  place  in  the  Vedic  Pantheon,  and  his 
worship  had  been  sufficiently  developed  to  admit  of  his  incarnation  as 
Krishna." —  (Personal  letter  from  Dr.  J.  Hampden  Porter,  dated 
Washington,  D.  C,  Sept.  29,  1888.) 

De  Gubernatis  speaks  of  "  the  superstitious  Hindoo  custom  of  puri- 
fying one's  self  by  means  of  the  excrement  of  a  cow.  The  same  custom 
passed  into  Persia ;  and  the  Kharda  Avesta  has  pi'eserved  the  formula 


116  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

to  be  recited  by  the  devotee  while  he  holds  in  his  hand  the  urine  of  an 
ox  or  cow,  preparatory  to  washing  his  face  with  it :  '  Destroyed,  de- 
stroyed, be  the  Demon  Ahriman,  whose  actions  and  works  are  cursed.'  " 
—  ("Zoological  Mythology,"  De  Gubernatis,  pp.  99-lCO,  vol.  i.) 

"  We  must  complete  the  explanation  of  another  myth,  that  of  the 
excrement  of  the  cow  considered  as  purifying.  The  moon,  as  aurora, 
yields  ambrosia.  It  is  considered  to  he  a  cow;  the  urine  of  this  cow 
is  ambrosia  or  holy  water ;  he  who  drinks  this  water  purifies  himself, 
as  the  ambrosia  which  rains  from  the  lunar  ray  and  tlie  aurora  purifies 
and  makes  clear  the  path  of  the  sky,  which  the  shadows  of  night  darken 
and  contaminate. 

"The  same  virtue  is  attributed,  moreover,  to  cow's  dung,  a  concep- 
tion also  derived  from  the  cow,  and  given  to  the  moon  as  well  as  to 
the  morning  aurora.  These  two  cows  are  considered  as  making  the 
earth  fruitful  by  means  of  their  ambrosial  excrements ;  these  excre- 
ments being  also  luminous,  both  those  of  the  moon  and  those  of  the 
aurora  are  considered  as  purifiers.  The  ashes  of  these  cows  which 
their  friend  the  heroine  preserves  are  not  ashes,  but  golden  powder  or 
golden  flour  (the  golden  cake  again  occurs  in  that  flour  or  powder  of 
gold  which  the  witch  demands  from  the  hero  in  Kussian  stories)  which, 
mixed  with  excrement,  brings  good  fortune  to  the  cunning  robber- 
hero. 

"The  ashes  of  the  sacrificed,  pregnant  cow  (i.  e.,  the  cow  which  dies 
after  having  given  birth  to  a  calf)  were  religiously  preserved  by  the 
Romans  in  the  Temple  of  Vesta  with  bean-stalks,  which  are  used  to 
fatten  the  earth  sown  with  corn,  as  a  means  of  expiation.  Ovid  men- 
tions this  rite.  (Fasti,  iv.  721.)  "The  ashes  of  a  cow  are  preserved 
both  as  a  symbol  of  resurrection  and  as  a  means  of  purification."  — 
("Zool.  Mythol.,"  De  Gubernatis,  vol.  i.  pp.  275-277.) 

The  learned  author  overlooks  in  his  argument  that  cows  were  sacri- 
ficed and  worshipped  in  India  before  they  were  transferred  to  the 
Zodiac  and  to  the  symbolism  of  the  elements.^ 

1  After  the  publication  of  Ins  original  pamphlet,  the  author  became  acquainted 
with  the  views  of  Mr.  Lang  upon  this  subject.  An  examination  of  tliem,  as  given 
in  his  "Mj'th,  Ritual,  and  Religion,"  vol.  ii.  p.  137,  will  show  that  he  perceives 
the  defect  in  the  explanation  given  by  De  Gubernatis  in  much  the  same  manner  as 
here  expressed. 

"  The  clouds  in  the  atmosphere  being  often  viewed  as  a  herd  of  cows."  —  (Intro- 
duction to  vol.  iv.  of  '*  Zendavesta,"  p.  64,  James  Darmesteter,  edition  of  Oxford, 
1880  :  "Sacred  Books  of  the  East,"  edited  by  Max  Miiller.) 

A  personal  letter  received  from  W.  S.  "Wyndham,  Esq.,  Boyne  Island,  Queens- 


cow   DUNG   AND   COW  URINE  IN   RELIGION.  117 

"  Heligion,  at  its  base,  is  the  product  of  imagination  working  on 
early  man's  wants  and  fears,  and  is  in  no  oense  supernatural  or  the 
result  of  any  preconceived  and  deliberate  thought  or  desire  to  work 
out  a  system  of  morals.  It  arose  in  each  case  from  what  appeared  to 
be  the  pressing  needs  of  the  day  or  season  on  the  man  or  his  tribe. 
The  codification  and  expansion  of  faiths  would  then  be  merely  the 
slow  outcome  of  the  cogitations  and  teachings  of  reflective  minds, 
working  usually  with  a  refining  tendency  on  the  aforesaid  primitive 
Nature-worship,  and  in  elucidation  of  its  ideas,  symbolism,  and  legends. 
Early  rude  worshippers  could  not  grasp  abstractions,  nor  follow  ser- 
mons even  if  they  had  been  preached,  and  certainly  not  recondite  the- 
ories on  what  the  "West  designates  *  Solar,'  and  other  theories."  — 
("  Rivers  of  Life,"  Forlong,  vol.  i.  p.  30.) 

"  In  the  Shapast  la  Shayast  (Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  v.  part  I.) 
much  stress  is  laid  on  bull's  urine  as  a  purifier." — (Personal  letter 
from  Professor  R.  A.  Oakes,  "Watertown,  New  York,  April  20,  1888.) 

"  During  the  last  few  years  we  have  been  treated  to  a  great  deal  of 
foolish  gush  about  the  beauty  and  nobility  of  Eastern  religions.  I 
don't  deny  that  there  are  many  commendable  features  about  them, 
and  that  they  often  get  near  to  the  heart  of  true  religion,  as  we  under- 
stand it.  But  in  their  practical  results  they  cannot  be  compared  with 
Christianity.     Take  a  concrete  instance  :  — 

"  The  Rev.  T.  W.  Jex-Blake  has  this  to  say  about  Benares,  with  its 
three  thousand  Hindu  temples:  'Step  into  the  city,'  he  says;  'one 
temple  swarms  with  foetid  apes ;  another  is  stercorous  with  cows.  The 
stench  in  the  passages  leading  to  the  temples  is  frightful ;  the  filth  be- 
neath your  feet  is  such  that  the  keenest  traveller  would  hardly  care  to 
face  it  twice.  Everywhere,  in  the  temples,  in  the  little  shrines  in  the 
street,  the  emblem  of  the  Creator  is  phallic.  Round  one  most  pictur- 
esque temple,  built  apparently  long  since  British  occupation  began, 
probably  since  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  runs  an  external  frieze,  about 
ten  feet  from  the  ground,  too  gross  for  the  pen  to  describe,  —  scenes 
of  vice,  natural  and  unnatural,  visible  to  all  the  world  all  day  long, 
worse  than  anything  in  the  Lupanar  in  Pompeii.  Nothing  that  I  saw 
in  India  roused  me  more  to  a  sense  of  the  need  of  religious  renovation 
by  the  Gospel  of  Christ  than  what  met  the  eye  openly,  right  and  left, 
at  Benares."      ("  Tribune,"  New  York,  Nov.  11,  1888.) 

land,  Australia,  relates  that  the  tribes  of  Australia  "have  the  stars  laid  out  the 
same  as  we  have,  only,  instead  of  the  Great  Bear,  etc.,  they  have  the  Emu,  Kanga- 
roo, Dog,  and  other  things  and  men  introduced." 


118  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  Forty  years  ago,  during  a  stay  of  three  months  in  Bombay,  I  saw 
frequently  cows  wandering  in  the  streets,  and  Hindu  devotees  bowing, 
and  lifting  up  the  tails  of  the  cows,  rubbing  the  wombs  of  the  aforesaid 
with  the  right  hand,  and  afterwards  rubbing  their  own  faces  with  it." 

—  (Personal  letter  from  Captain  Henri   Jouan,  French  Navy,  dated 
Cherbourg,  France,  July  29,  1888.) 

Almost  identical  information  was  communicated  by  General  J.  J. 
Dana,  U.  S.  Army,  who,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Calcutta,  over  forty 
years  ago,  had  seen  Hindu  devotees  besmeared  from  head  to  foot  with 
liuman  excrement. 

Among  the  superstitious  practices  of  the  Greeks,  Plutarch  mentions 
"rolling  themselves  in  dung-hills."  ("Morals,"  Goodwin's  trans., 
Boston,  1870,  vol.  i.  p.  171,  art.  "Superstitions.")  Plutarch  also 
mentions  "foul  expiations,"  "vile  methods  of  purgation,"  "  bemirings 
at  the  temple,"  and  speaks  of  "  penitents  wrapped  up  in  foul  and  nasty 
rags,"  or  "rolling  naked  in  the  mire,"  "vile  and  abject  adorations," 

—  (pp.  171-180.) 

This  veneration  for  the  excrement  of  the  cow  is  to  be  found  among 
other  races.  The  Hottentots  "  besmear  their  bodies  with  fat  and  other 
greasy  substances  over  which  the}'  rub  cow-dung,  fat  and  similar  sub- 
stances." —  (Thurnberg's  "  Account  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,"  in 
Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  pp.  25,  73,  139. 

"  Every  idea  and  thought  of  the  Dinka  is  how  to  acquire  and  main- 
tain cattle ;  a  certain  kind  of  reverence  would  seem  to  be  paid  them ; 
even  their  offal  is  considered  of  high  importance.  The  dung,  which  is 
burnt  to  ashes  for  sleeping  in  and  for  smearing  their  persons,  and 
the  urine,  which  is  used  for  washing  and  as  a  substitute  for  salt,  are 
their  daily  requisites."  —  (Schweinfurth,  "Heart  of  Africa,"  vol.  i. 
p.  58.) 

In  the  religious  ceremonies  of  the  Calmuck  Lamas,  "  Les  pauvres 
jettent  au  commencement  de  I'office,  qui  dure  toute  la  journee,  un  peu 
d'encens  sur  de  la  bouse  de  vache  allumee  et  port^e  par  un  petit  trcpied 
de  fer."  —  ("  Voy.  de  Pallas/'  vol.  i.  p.  563.) 


ALLEGED   USE   OF   ORDURE   IN   FOOD   BY  THE   ISRAELITES.      119 


XVIII. 

ORDURE  ALLEGED   TO   HAVE   BEEN   USED   IN  FOOD   BY 
THE  ISRAELITES. 

A  MONG  the  Banians  of  India,  proselytes  are  obliged  by  the  Brah- 
-^^  mans  to  eat  cow-dung  for  six  mouths.  They  begin  with  one 
pound  daily,  and  diminish  from  day  to  day.  A  subtle  commentator, 
says  Picart,  might  institute  a  comparison  between  the  nourishment  of 
these  fanatics  and  the  dung  of  cows  which  the  Lord  ordered  the 
prophet  Ezekiel  to  mingle  with  his  food.^ 

This  was  the  opinion  held  by  Voltaire  on  this  subject.  Speaking  of 
the  prophet  Ezekiel,  he  said  :  "  He  is  to  eat  bread  of  barley,  wheat, 
beans,  lentils,  and  millet,  and  to  cover  it  with  human  excrement."  '  It 
is  thus,  he  says,  that  the  "  children  of  Israel  shall  eat  their  bread  de- 
filed among  the  nations  among  which  they  shall  be  banished."  But 
"after  having  eaten  this  bread  of  affliction,  God  permits  him  to  cover 
it  with  the  excrement  of  cattle  simply." 

The  view  entei'taiued  by  some  biblical  commentators  is  that  the 
excrement  was  used  for  baking  the  bread  ;  but  if  this  be  true,  why 
should  human  fteces  be  used  for  such  a  purpose  1  (Consult  Lange's 
Commentaries,  article  "  Ezekiel,"  and  McClintock  and  Strong's  Cyclo- 
predia,  article  "  Dung.") 

1  Disons  un  mot  de  la  maniere  dont  les  Proselytes  des  Banians  sont  obliges  de 
vivre  les  premiers  mois  de  leur  conversion.  Les  Brahmines  lenr  ordonneut  de 
'nieler  de  la  fiente  de  la  vache  dans  tout  ce  qu'ils  mangent  pendant  ce  tems  de  re- 
generation. .  .  .  Que  ne  diroit  pas  ici  un  comnientateur  subtil  qui  voudroit  com- 
parer la  uourriture  de  ces  proselytes  avec  les  ordres  que  Dieu  donna  autrefois  a 
Ezechiel  de  meler  de  la  fiente  de  vache  dans  ses  alimens.  Ezekiel  iv.  —  (Picart, 
"  Coutumes  et  ceremonies  religieuses,"  etc.,  Amsterdam,  1729,  vol.  vii.  p.  15.) 

^  "  II  doit  manger  du  pain,  du  froment,  d'orge,  de  feves,  de  millets,  etde  couvrir 
d'excremens  humains,"  etc.  —  (Voltaire,  "  Essais  sur  les  Mceurs,"  vol.  i.  p.  195, 
Paris,  1795). 

"And  thou  shalt  eat  it  as  barley  cakes,  and  thou  shalt  bake  it  with  dung  that 
cometh  out  of  man  in  their  sight."  —  (Ezekiel  iv.  12.) 


120  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

"For  mere  filth,  what  can  be  fouler  than  2  Kings  xviii.  27,  Isaiah 
xxxvi.  12,  and  Ezekiel  iv.  12-15  (where  the  Lord  changes  human 
ordure  into*  cow  chips')?  '  Ce  qui  excuse  Dieu,*  said  Henri  Bayle, 
'ce  qu'il  u'existe  pas.'  I  add,  as  man  has  made  him." — (Richard  F. 
Burton,  "  Terminal  Essay  "  to  his  edition  of  the  "  Arabian  Xights," 
vol.  X.  p.  181,  foot-note,  London,  1886.") 

Bayle  does  not  allude  to  the  baking  of  bread  with  ordure  in  his  brief 
article  upon  the  prophet  Ezekiel  ;  neither  does  Prof.  J.  Stuart  Blaikie 
in  his  more  comprehensive  dissertation  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britaunica, 
article  "  Ezekiel." 

"The  use  of  dung  b}^  the  ancient  Israelites  is  collected  incidentally 
from  the  passage  in  which  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  being  commanded,  as  a 
symbolic  action,  to  bake  his  bread  with  dung,  excuses  himself  from  the 
use  of  an  unclean  thing,  and  is  permitted  to  employ  cow's  dung  instead." 
—  (Strong  and  McClintock's  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Biblical  and  Classical 
Literature,"  New  York,  1868,  vol.  ii.  article  "  Dung.") 

"  I  fear  that  Voltaire  cannot  be  taken  as  an  authority  on  Hebrew 
matters.  I  believe  that  the  passage  from  Ezekiel  is  correctly  rendered 
in  the  revised  edition,  where  at  verse  15  '  thereon '  is  substituted  for 
'  therewith'  of  the  old  version.  The  use  of  dried  cow's-dung  as  fuel  is 
common  among  the  poorer  classes  in  the  East ;  and  in  a  siege,  fuel,  al- 
ways scarce,  would  be  so  scarce  that  a  man's  dung  might  have  to  be 
used.  I  do  not  think  that  one  need  look  further  for  the  explanation  of 
verses  15-17  ;  the  words  of  verse  15  are  not  ambiguous,  and  that  used 
for  dung  is  the  same  as  the  Arabs  still  apply  to  the  dried  cakes  of  cow's 
dung  used  for  fuel.  Voltaire  and  Picart  both  seem  to  have  used  the 
Vulgate,  in  which  verse  12  is  wrongly  rendered."  —  (Personal  letter 
from  Prof.  W.  Robertson  Smith,  Cambridge,  England.) 

"  Les  nombreux  examples  qui  precedent  rendent  moins  interessante 
la  question  de  savoir  an  Ezechias  stercus  comederit ;  ce  ne  serait  qu'un 
mangeur  de  plus.  Pourtant  on  pent  voir  dans  la  Bible  le  verset  12 
du  chap.  iv.  de  ce  prophete  : '  et  quasi  sub  cinericium  hordaceum  comedes 
illud  et  stercore  quod  egreditur  de  homine  operies  illud  in  oculis  eorum ; ' 
et  les  diverses  interpretations  donnees  par  les  differents  traducteurs  et 
commentateurs." —  (Bihliotheca  Scatalogica,  pp.  93-96.) 

Schurig  consacre  im  paragraphe  k  discuter  an  Ezechias  stercus  come- 
derit.—  (Idem,  p.  39.) 

Just  exactly  what  Schurig  thought  on  this  subject  may  be  stated 
in  his  own  words.  Although  not  positive,  he  inclines  to  the  opinion 
that  Ezekiel  did  eat  excrement :  — 


ALLEGED   USE  OF   ORDURE   IN   FOOD   BY  THE   ISRAELITES.      121 

"  Denique,  mandato  divino,  Propiieta  Ezechiel,  cap.  iv.  ver.  12,  pla- 
centam  hordeaceain  cum  stercore  liumano  parasse  atque  cornedisse 
primo  intuitu  videtur,  juxta  versionem  Lutheri.  .  .  .  Juxta  Junium 
ct  Tremellium  allegata  verba  sic  sonant :  Comedes  cibum  ut  placen- 
tara  hordeaceam,  ct  ad  orbes  excrcmcnti  humani  parabis  placentani 
istam  in  oculis  illorum.  Juxta  Sebustianum  Schmidium  :  Sicut  placcn- 
tam  liordeorura  comedes  eum  ;  quod  ad  ipsum  tamen,  cum  stercore  finii 
liominis  facies  in  oculis  eorum.  Bene  etiam  hunc  locum  explicat 
Textus  Gallicus  mese  editionis  :  Tu  mangeras  de  fouaces  d'orge,  et  les 
cuiias  avec  la  fiente  qui  sort  hors  de  rhomme  eux  le  voyaus."  — 
("Chylologia,"  Dresden,  1725,  pp.  782,  783.) 

"  Ezekiel  says  that  his  God  told  him  to  lie  for  three  hundred  and 
ninety  days  on  his  left  side,  and  then  forty  days  on  liis  right  side, 
when  *  he  would  lay  hands  on  him  and  turn  him  from  one  side  to  an- 
other ; '  also  that  during  all  this  period  he  was  only  to  eat  barley  bread 
baked  in  too  disgusting  a  manner  to  be  described."  —  ("  Rivers  of 
Life,"  Forlong,  vol.  ii.  p.  597.) 

"Tliis  last  command  was,  however,  so  strongly  resented  that  his 
Deity  somewhat  relaxed  it."  —  (Idem.) 

The  most  rational  explanation  of  this  much-disputed  and  ambiguous 
passage  must  necessarily  be  such  as  can  be  deduced  from  a  considera- 
tion of  Ezekiel's  environment. 

Giving  due  weight  to  every  doubt,  there  remains  this  feature:  the 
prophet  unquestionably  was  influenced  and  actuated  by  the  ideas  of 
his  day  and  generation,  which  looked  upon  the  humiliations  to  whicli 
he  subjected  himself  as  the  outward  manifestations  of  an  inward 
spirituality. 

Psychologically  speaking,  thei-e  is  no  great  difference  between  the 
consumption  of  human  excrement  and  the  act  of  lying  on  one's  side  for 
three  hundred  and  ninety  days;  both  are  indications  of  the  same 
perverted  cerebration,  mistaken  with  such  frequency  for  piety  and 
holiness. 

"  Isaiah  had  periods  of  indecent  maniacal  outbursts  ;  for  we  are  told 
that  he  once  went  about  stark  naked  for  three  years,  because  so  com- 
manded by  the  Lord."  —  (''  Rivers  of  Life/'  vol.  ii.  p.  537,  quoting 
Isaiah  xx.  2,  3.) 

THE    SACRED    COW's    EXCRETA    A    SUBSTITUTE    FOR    HUMAN    SACRIFICE. 

The  foregoing  testimony,  which  could  readily  be  swelled  in  volume, 
proves  the  sacred  character  of  these  excreta,  which  may  be  looked  upon 


122  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF   ALT-   NATIONS. 

as  substitutes  for  a  more  perfect  sacrifice.  In  the  early  life  of  the 
Hindus  it  is  more  than  likely  that  the  cow  or  the  heifer  was  slaugh- 
tered by  the  knife  or  burnt ;  as  population  increased  in  density,  do- 
mestic cattle  became  too  costly  to  be  offered  as  a  frequent  oblation, 
and  on  the  principle  that  the  part  represents  the  whole,  hair,  milk,  but- 
ter, urine,  and  ordure  superseded  the  slain  carcass,  while  the  inciner- 
ated excrement  was  made  to  do  duty  as  a  burnt  sacrifice.^ 

It  was  hardly  probable  that  such  practices,  or  an  explanation  of  the 
causes  which  led  to  their  adoption  and  perpetuation,  should  have 
escaped  the  keen  criticism  of  E.  B.  Tylor. 

"For  the  means  of  some  of  his  multifarious  lustrations,  the  Hindu 
has  recourse  to  the  sacred  cow.  .  .  .  The  Parsi  religion  prescribes  a 
system  of  lustration  which  well  shows  its  common  origin  with  that  of 
Hinduism  by  its  similar  use  of  cow's  urine  and  water.  .  .  .  Applica- 
tions of  nirang,  washed  off  with  water,  form  part  of  the  daily  religious 
rites,  as  well  as  of  such  special  ceremonies  as  the  naming  of  the  new- 
born child,  the  putting  on  of  the  sacred  cord,  the  purification  of  the 
mother  after  childbirth,  and  the  purification  of  him  who  has  touched 
a  corpse."  —  (E.  B.  Tylor,  "Primitive  Culture,"  Loudon,  1871,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  396,  397.) 

"  It  will  help  us  to  realize  how  the  sacrifice  of  an  animal  may  atone 
for  a  human  life,  if  we  notice  in  South  Africa  how  a  Zulu  will  redeem 
a  lost  child  from  the  finder  by  a  bullock,  or  a  Kimbunda  will  expiate 
the  blood  of  a  slave  by  the  offering  of  an  ox,  whose  blood  will  wash 
away  the  other.  For  instances  of  the  animal  substituted  for  man  in 
sacrifice,  the  following  may  serve:  Among  the  Khonds  of  Orissa,  where 
Colonel  MacPherson  was  engaged  in  putting  down  the  sacrifice  of  human 
victims  by  the  sect  of  the  Earth-goddess,  they  at  once  began  to  discuss 
the  plan  of  sacrificing  cattle  by  way  of  substitutes.  Now,  there  is 
some  reason  to  think  that  this  same  course  of  ceremonial  change  may 
account  for  the  following  sacrificial  practice  in  the  other  Khond  sect. 
It  appears  that  those  who  worship  the  Liglit-god  hold  a  festival  in  his 
honor,  when  they  slaughter  a  buffalo  in  commemoration  of  the  time 
when,  as  they  say,  the  Earth-goddess  was  prevailing  on  men  to  offer 

*  Such  an  economic  tendency  in  the  sacrificial  practices  of  the  Parsis  is  shown 
by  Tylor.  The  Vedic  sacrifice,  Agnishtoma,  required  that  animals  should  be  slain 
and  their  flesh  partly  committed  to  the  gods  by  fire,  partly  eaten  by  sacrificers  and 
priests.  The  Pars!  ceremony,  Izeshne,  formal  successor  of  tliis  bloody  rite,  requires 
no  animal  to  be  killed,  but  it  suffices  to  place  the  hair  of  an  ox  in  a  vessel,  and 
show  it  to  the  fire.  —  ("Primitive  Culture,"  E.  B.  Tylor,  New  York,  1874,  vol.  ii. 
p.  400.) 


ALLEGED  USE   OF   ORDURE  IN   FOOD   BY  THE  ISRAELITES.      123 

human  sacrifices  to  her,  but  the  Light-god  sent  a  tribe-deity  who 
crushed  the  bloody-minded  Earth-goddess  under  a  mountain  and 
dragged  a  buffalo  out  of  the  jungle,  saying,  'Liberate  the  man,  and 
sacrifice  the  bufi'alo.'  It  looks  as  though  this  legend,  divested  of  its 
mythic  garb,  may  really  record  a  historical  substitution  of  animal  for 
human  sacrifice.  In  Ceylon,  the  exorcist  will  demand  the  name  of  the 
demon  possessing  a  demoniac,  and  the  patient  in  frenzy  answers,  giving 
the  demon's  name, '  I  am  So-and-so ;  I  demand  a  human  sacrifice,  and  I 
will  not  go  without.'  The  victim  is  promised,  the  patient  comes  to 
from  the  tit,  and  a  few  weeks  later  the  sacrifice  is  made ;  but  instead 
of  a  man  they  offer  a  fowl.  Classic  examples  of  a  substitution  of  this 
sort  may  be  found  in  the  sacrifice  of  a  doe  for  a  virgin  to  Artemis  ia 
Laodicsea,  a  goat  for  a  boy  to  Diouysos  at  Potniae. 

"  There  appears  to  be  a  Semitic  connection  here,  as  there  clearly  is  in 
the  story  of  the  ^Eolians  of  Tenedos  sacrificing  to  Melikertes  (Melkarth) 
instead  of  a  new-born  child  a  new-born  calf,  shoeing  it  with  buskins  and 
tending  the  mother  cow  as  if  a  human  mother."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii. 
p.  366  ;  or  in  New  York  edition,  1879,  vol.  ii.  pp.  403,  404.) 

"  0  ]Maker  of  the  material  world,  thou  Holy  One  !  which  is  the  urine 
wherewith  the  corpse-bearers  shall  wash  their  hair  and  their  bodies] 
Is  it  of  sheep  or  of  oxen  ]     Is  it  of  man  or  of  woman  ] 

"  Ahura  Mazda  answered  :  It  is  of  sheep  or  of  oxen,  not  of  man  nor 
of  woman,  except  these  two,  the  nearest  kinsman  {of  the  dead)  or  his 
nearest  kinswoman.  The  worshippers  of  Mazda  shall  therefore  pro- 
cure the  urine  wherewith  the  corpse-bearers  shall  wash  their  hair  and 
their  bodies."  —  (Fargard  vii.,  Avendidad,  Zendavesta,  Oxford,  1890, 
p.  96.)      • 

"  A  prince  may  sacrifice  his  enemy,  having  first  invoked  the  axe  with 
holy  texts,  by  substituting  a  buffalo  or  goat,  calling  the  victim  by  the 
name  of  the  enemy  throughout  the  whole  ceremony."  —  ("  The  San- 
guinary Chapter,"  translated  from  the  "  Calica  Purana,"  in  vol.  5, 
"  Transactions  Asiatic  Society,"  4th  edition,  London,  1807,  p.  386.) 

"An  interesting  chapter  of  the  Aitareya-brahmanam,  on  the  sacrifice 
of  animals,  shows  us  how,  next  to  man,  the  horse  was  the  supreme 
sacrifice  offered  to  the  gods ;  how  the  cow  afterwards  took  the  place  of 
the  horse,  the  sheep  of  the  cow,  the  goat  of  the  sheep ;  and  at  last 
vegetable  products  were  substituted  for  animals,  —  a  substitution  or 
cheating  of  the  gods  in  the  sacrifice,  which  perhaps  explains  even  more 
the  fraud  of  which,  in  popular  stories,  the  simpleton  is  always  the  vic- 
tim ;  the  simpleton  hero  being  the  god  himself,  and  the  cheater  man. 


124  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

who  changes,  under  a  sacred  pretext,  the  noblest  and  most  valued  ani- 
mals for  common  and  less  valued  ones,  and  finally  for  vegetables  ap- 
parently of  no  value  whatever.  In  Hindu  codes  of  law  we  have  the 
same  fraudulent  substitution  of  animals  under  a  legal  pretext.  '  The 
killer  of  a  cow,'  says  the  code  attributed  to  Yaguavalkyas,  '  must  stay 
a  month  in  peniteuce,  drinking  the  panchakaryam '  (that  is,  the  five 
good  productions  of  the  cow,  which,  according  to  Manus,  are  milk,  curds, 
butter,  urine,  and  dung),  sleeping  in  a  stable,  and  following  the  cows.'  " 
—  ("Zool.  Mythol.,"  De  Guberuatis,  vol.  i.  pp.  44,  45.) 

"  The  sacred  books  of  the  Hindus  contain  the  most  formal  and  de- 
tailed instructions  about  human  sacrifices,  and  on  what  occasions  and 
with  what  ceremonies  they  are  to  be  offered  ;  sometimes  on  an  enor- 
mous scale,  —  as  many  as  one  hundred  and  fifty  human  victims  at  one 
sacrifice."  —  Ragoziu,  "Assyria,"  New  York,  1887,  pp.  127-128. 

Continuing,  Ragozin  says  :  "  When  bloody  sacrifices,  even  of  animals, 
were  in  great  part  abolished,  and  offerings  of  cakes  of  rice  and  wheat 
were  substituted,  the  humane  change  was  authorized  by  a  parable 
which  told  how  the  sacrificial  virtue  had  left  the  highest  and  most 
valuable  victim,  man,  and  descended  into  the  horse,  from  the  horse 
into  the  steer,  from  the  steer  into  the  goat,  from  the  goat  into  the  sheep, 
and  from  that  at  last  passed  into  the  earth,  where  it  was  found  abiding 
in  the  grains  of  rice  and  wheat  laid  in  it  for  seed. 

"  This  was  an  ingenious  way  of  intimating  that  henceforth  harm- 
less ofierings  of  rice  and  wheat  cakes  would  be  as  acceptable  to  the 
deity  as  the  living  victims,  human  and  animal,  formerly  were."  — 
(Idem,  p.   128.) 

As  the  animal  victim  became  more  and  more  valuable,  we  have  seen 
that  its  excreta  were  offered  in  its  place. 

The  Celtic  stock,  it  is  now  generally  admitted,  represents  a  very  early 
migration  from  India.  Exactly  when  this  migration  began  and  was 
completed  we  have  no  means  of  determining  ;  but  we  may  safely  say, 
judging  from  the  prominence  in  Celtic  folk-lore  of  the  chicken-dung, 
that  it  did  not  occur  until  the  cultus  of  India  was  beginning  to  cast 
about  for  some  suitable  substitute  for  human  sacrifice.^ 

1  Dubois  declares  that  in  the  Atharvana  Veda  "bloody  sacrifices  of  victims 
(human  not  excepted)  are  there  prescribed."  ("  People  of  India,"  London, 
1817,  p.  -341.)  And  in  those  parts  of  India  where  human  sacrifice  had  been 
abolished  a  substitutive  ceremony  was  practised  "  by  forming  a  human  figure  of 
flour  paste  or  clay,  which  they  carry  into  the  temple,  and  there  cut  off  its  head  and 
mutilate  it  in  various  ways,  in  presence  of  the  idols."  —  (Idem,  p.  490.) 


ALLEGED   USE   OF   ORDURE   IN   FOOD   BY  THE   ISRAELITES.      125 

luman  takes  the  ground  that  the  very  same  substitution  occurred 
among  the  Hebrews.  Commenthig  upon  1  Kings  xix.  18,  he  says  : 
"  lu  the  Vulgate  the  passage  is  thus  rendered:  '  They  say  to  these, 
Sacrifice  the  men  who  adore  the  calves;'  while  the  Septuagint  ren- 
ders the  words,  '  Sacrifice  men,  for  the  calves  have  come  to  an  end,' 
indicating  a  reversion  to  human  sacrifice."  —  (Innian,  "Ancient  Faiths 
Embodied  in  Ancient  Names,"  London,  1878,  article  "  Hosea.") 

"  He  that  killeth  an  ox  as  if  he  slew  a  man ;  he  that  sacrificeth  a 
lamb  as  if  he  cut  off  a  dog's  neck  ;  he  that  offereth  an  oblation  as  if  he 
offered  swine's  blood  ;  he  that  burneth  incense  as  if  he  blessed  an  idol.'' 
—  (Isaiah  Ixvi.  3.  Reference  given  to  the  above  by  Prof.  W.  Robert- 
son Smith.) 

"  In  the  earliest  period  the  horse  seems  to  have  been  the  favorite 
animal  for  sacrifice."  —  ("'Teutonic  Mythology,"  Jacob  Grimm,  vol.  i. 
p.  47.) 

"  The  Brahmans  show  how,  in  Hindostan,  the  lower  animals  became 
vicarious  substitutes  for  man  in  sacrifice."  —  (''  Myth,  Ritual,  and 
Religion,"  Andrew  Lang,  vol.  ii.  p.  40,  footnote.) 

If  tlie  cow  have  displaced  a  human  victim,  may  it  not  be  within 
the  limits  of  probability  that  the  ordure  and  urine  of  the  sacred 
bovine  are  substitutes,  not  only  for  the  complete  carcass,  but  that  they 
symbolize  a  former  use  of  human  excreta?^  The  existence  of  ur-orgies 
has  been  indicated  in  Siberia,  where  the  religion  partakes  of  many  of 
the  characteristics  of  Buddhism.^  The  minatory  phraseology  of  the 
Brahminical  inhibition  of  the  use  of  the  fungi  which  enter  into  these 
orgies  has  been  given  verhatim ;  so  that,  even  did  no  better  evidence 
exist,  enough  has  been  presented  to  open  up  a  wide  range  of  dis- 
cussion as  to  the  former  area  of  distribution  of  loathsome  and  dis- 
gusting ceremonials,  which  are  now  happily  restricted  to  small  and 
constantly  diminishing  zones. 

HUMAN    ORDURE   AND    URINE   STILL   USED    IN    INDIA. 

It  is  well  to  remember,  however,  that  in  India  the  more  generally 
recognized  efficacy  of  cow  urine  and  cow  dung  has  not  blinded  the 

1  After  the  Jew.s  had  been  humbled  by  the  Lord,  and  made  to  mingle  human 
ordure  with  their  bread,  the  punishment  was  mitigated  by  substitution.  "Then 
he  said  unto  me,  Lo  !  I  have  given  thee  cow's  dung  for  man's  dung,  and  thou  shall 
prepare  thy  bread  therewith."  —  Ezekiel  iv.  15. 

2  Pallas  believed  "que  le  lamaisme  des  Kalmouks  Mongols  est  originaire  des 
Indes."  —  (Voy.  de  Pallas,  vol.  i.  p.  535.) 


126  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

fanatical  devotee  to  the  necessity  of  occasionally  having  recourse  to 
the  human  product. 

"  At  about  ten  leagues  to  the  southward  of  Seringapatam  there  is  a 
village  called  Nan-ja-na-gud,  in  which  there  is  a  temple  famous  all  over 
the  Mysore.  Amongst  the  number  of  votaries  of  every  caste  who 
resort  to  it,  a  great  proportion  consists  of  barren  women,  who  bring 
offerings  to  the  god  of  the  place,  and  pray  for  the  gift  of  fruitfulness 
in  return.  But  the  object  is  not  to  be  accomplished  by  the  offerings 
and  prayers  alone,  the  disgusting  part  of  the  ceremony  being  still  to 
follow.  On  retiring  from  the  temple,  the  woman  and  her  husband 
repair  to  the  common  sewer  to  which  all  the  pilgrims  resort  in  obe- 
dience to  the  calls  of  nature.  There  the  husband  and  wife  collect, 
with  their  hands,  a  quantity  of  the  ordure,  which  they  set  apart,  with 
a  mark  upon  it,  that  it  may  not  be  touched  by  any  one  else ;  and  with 
their  fingers  in  this  condition,  they  take  the  water  of  the  sewer  in 
the  hollow  of  their  hands  and  drink  it.  Then  they  perform  ablution 
and  retire.  In  two  or  three  days  they  return  to  the  place  of  filth  to 
visit  the  mass  of  ordure  which  they  left.  They  turn  it  over  with  their 
hands,  break  it,  and  examine  it  in  every  possible  way  ;  and,  if  they 
find  that  any  insects  or  vermin  are  engendered  in  it,  they  consider  it 
a  favorable  prognostic  for  the  woman."  —  (Abbe  Dubois,  "  People  of 
India,"  London,  1817,  p.  411.)* 

1  Previous  notes  upon  the  Grand  Lama  of  Tliibet,  and  upon  the  abominable 
practices  of  the  Agozis  and  Gurus  seem  to  be  pertinent  in  this  connection. 
See  pp.  40-42.  « 


EXCREMENT   GODS   OF   ROMANS   AND   EGYPTIANS.  127 


XIX. 

EXCREMENT  GODS   OF   ROMANS  AND   EGYPTIANS. 

T^HE  Romans  and  Egyptians  went  farther  than  this  ;  they  had  gods 
-^  of  excrement,  wliose  special  function  was  the  care  of  latrines  and 
those  who  frequented  them.  Torquemada,  a  Spanish  author  of  high 
repute,  expresses  tliis  in  very  plain  language  :  — 

"  I  assert  that  they  used  to  adore  (as  St.  Clement  writes  to  St.  James 
the  Less)  stinking  and  filthy  privies  and  water-closets ;  and,  what  is 
viler  and  yet  more  abominable,  and  an  occasion  for  our  tears  and  not 
to  be  borne  with  or  so  much  as  mentioned  by  name,  they  adored  the 
noise  and  wind  of  the  stomach  when  it  expels  from  itself  any  cold  or 
flatulence  ;  and  other  things  of  the  same  kind,  which,  according  to  the 
same  saint,  it  would  be  a  shame  to  name  or  describe."^ 

In  the  preceding  lines  Torquemada  refers  to  the  Egyptians  only, 
but,  as  will  be  seen  by  examining  the  Spanish  notes  below,  his 
language  is  almost  the  same  when  speaking  of  the  Romans.'  The 
Roman  goddess  was  called  Cloacina.  She  was  one  of  the  first  of  the 
Roman  deities,  and  is  believed  to  have  been  named  by  Romulus  him- 
self. Under  her  chai-ge  were  the  various  cloacae,  sewers,  privies,  etc., 
of  the  Eternal  City.' 

^  Digo  que  adoraban  (segun  San  Clemente  escrive  a  Santiago  el  menor),  las  he- 
diondas  y  sucias  necesarias  y  latrinas  ;  j'  lo  que  es  peor  y  mas  abominable  y  digno 
de  llorar  y  no  de  sufrir,  ni  nombrarle  por  su  nombre,  que  adoraban,  el  estniendo  y 
cnigimiento,  que  hace  el  vientre  quando  despide  de  si  alguna  frialdad  6  ventosidad 
y  otras  semejantes,  que  segun  el  mismo  santo  es  verguenza  nonibrarlas  y  decirlas. 
—  (Torquemada,  Monarchia  Indiana,  lib.  vi.  chap.  13,  Madrid,  1723.) 

^  Los  Romanos  .  .  .  constituieron  Diosa  a  los  hediondas  necesarias  6  latrinas  y 
la  adoraban  y  consagraban  y  ofrecian  sacrificios.  —  (Idem,  lib.  vi.  chap.  16,  Madrid, 
1723.) 

8  There  is  another  opinion  concerning  Cloacina  —  that  she  was  one  of  the  names 
given  to  a  statue  of  Venus  found  in  the  Cloaca  Maxima.  Smith,  in  his  Dictionary 
of  Antiquities,  London,  1850,  expresses  this  view,  and  seems  to  be  followed  by  the 
American  and  Britannic  Encyclopoedias.  Lempriere  defines  Cloacina  :  "  A  goddess 
of  Rome,  who  presided  over  the  Cloacae  —  some  suppose  her  to  be  Yenus  —  whose 


128  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

"Les  anciens  avaient  fait  plusieurs  divinites  du  Stercus  ;  1.  Stercus 
ou  Sterces,  pere  de  Picus,  inveuteur  de  la  mcthode  de  fuiner  les  ter- 
rcs  (S.  August.  De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  xviii.  cap.  15).  2.  Sterculius 
(Macrob.,  Saturn,  lib.  i.  cap.  7)  ;  3.  Stercutius  (Lactant.  de  fal.  reb.), 
Stercutus,  Sterquilinus,  Sterquiline,  diviuitcs  qui  presidaient  aux  en- 
grais.  Quelques  personnes  croient  que  c'etait  un  surnom  de  Satunie 
comme  inveuteur  de  I'agriculture ;  d'autres  y  reconnaissent  la  terre 
elle-meme.  Pline  dit  que  ce  dieu  ctait  fils  du  dieu  Fauna  et  petit-fils 
de  Picus,  roi  des  Latins. —  (Pline,  lib.  xvii.  cap.  9,  num.  40;  Persius, 
sat.  i.  ver.  3.) 

"  On  bonore  aussi  Faunus  avec  les  deux  demiers  sumoms."  —  (Pline, 
1(jc.  cit.     Bib.  Scat.) 

"  Consultez  sur  cette  deese  en  I'honneur  de  laquelle  on  a  frappe  des 
mcdailles,  Lactant.  Instit.  lib.  i.  cap.  20,  p.  11 ;  St.  Cyp.  Van.  d.  id. 
cap.  2,  par.  G  ;  Miuutins  Felix,  Oct.  cap.  25  ;  Pline,  Hist.  Nat.  lib.  xiv. 
cap.  29  ;  Tite  Live,  3,  48 ;  Banier,  Myth,  tome  i.  348  ;  iv.  329,  338  ;  " 
—  (Bib.  Scat.  p.  43,  footnote.) 

As  far  as  possible,  the  above  citations  were  verified ;  the  edition  of 
St.  Augustine  consulted  was  that  of  the  Reverend  Maurice  Dods, 
Edinburgh,   1871. 

"Tatius  both  discovered  and  worshipped  Cloacina."  —  (Minutius 
Felix,  "  Octavius,"  cap.  xxv.,  edition  of  Edinburgh,  18G9.) 

"  Colatina,  alias  Clocina,  was  goddess  of  the  stools,  the  jakes,  and 
the  privy,  to  whom,  as  to  every  of  the  rest,  there  was  a  peculiar 
temple  edified." —  (Reginald  Scot,  "  Discovery  of  Witchcraft/"?  lib.  16, 
cap.  22,  giving  a  list  of  the  Roman  gods.) 

.statue  was  found  in  the  Cloacre,  whence  the  name."  —  (See,  also,  in  Anthon's 
(  lassical  Dictionary. ) 

Higgins  says  that  "  tlie  famous  statue  of  Venus  Cloacina  was  found  in  them 
(the  Cloacffi  Maxinite)  by  Romulus."  —  (.\nacalypsis,  footnote  to  p.  624,  London, 
1836.) 

Torquemada  insists  that  the  Romans  borrowed  this  goddess  from  the  Egyptians  : 
"A  esta  diosa  Uamaron  Cloacina,  Diosa  que  presidia  en  sus  albanares  y  los  guardaba, 
que  son  los  lugnres  doude  van  a  parar  todas  las  suciedades,  inmundicias,  y  vasco- 
.Mdades  de  una  Republica."  —  (Torquemada,  lib.  vi.  chap.  17.) 

Torquemada,  who  makes  manifest  in  his  writings  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
Hreek  and  Roman  mythology,  fortifies  his  position  by  references  from  St.  Clem- 
ent, Itinerar.,  lib.  5  ;  Lactantius,  Divinas  Ejus,  lib.  1,  chap.  20  ;  Epistle  of  St. 
Clement  to  St.  James  the  Less,  Eusebius,  de  Preparatione  Evangel.,  chap.  1  ;  St. 
Augustine,  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  2,  chap.  22  ;  Diod.  Sic,  lib.  1,  chap.  2,  and  lib.  2,  chap. 
4  ;  Lucian,  Dialogues,  Cicero,  de  Nat.  Dcorum,  Pliny,  lib.  10,  chap.  27,  and  lib. 
11,  chap.  21  ;  Theodoiet,  lib.  3,  de  Evangelii  veritatis  cognitione. 


EXCREMENT  GODS   OF  ROMANS   AND  EGYPTIANS.  129 

The  following  epigram  is  taken  from  Harington's  "  Ajax,"  p.  xviii. : 

"  The  Romans,  ever  counted  superstitious, 
Adored  with  high  titles  of  divinity. 
Dame  Cloacina  and  the  Lord  Stercutins,  — 
Two  persons,  in  their  state,  of  great  affinity." 

For  further  references  to  Cloacina,  see  p.  264. 

"Stercus,  Dieu  particulier  qui  presidait  a  la  garde-robe.  Ce  dernier 
nous  rappelle  qu'i,  I'art.  Scopetarius,  num.  Ill,  nous  avons  dit  quel- 
ques  mots  de  Cloacine,  deese  des  egouts. 

"  On  trouve  encore  dans  Arnobe  un  dieu  Latrinus  duquel  il  dit : 
'Qnis  Latrinus  prtesideni  latrinisT" —  (Adv.  Gent.  lib.  4.) 

"  Horace  et  tons  les  poetes  du  temps  d'Auguste,  parlent  de  Stercus 
et  ses  circonstances  et  dependances  en  cent  endroits  de  leurs  ouvrages. 
Martial,  Catulle,  Petrone,  JNtacrobe,  Lucrece,  en  saupoudrent  leurs 
poesies ;  Homere,  Pline,  Lampride  en  parlent  a  ciel  et  a  coeurs  con- 
verts ;  Saint  Jerome  et  Saint  Augustin  ne  dedaignent  pas  d'en  entre- 
tenir  leurs  lecteurs."  —  (Bibliotheca  Scatalogica,  pp.  1,  2.) 

''  Dans  Plautus,  Aristophane  fait  dire  per  Carion  que  le  dieu  Es- 
culape  aime  et  mange  la  merde  :  il  est  merdivore,  corame  ^crit  le  tra- 
ducteur  latin ;  Prave  dieu,  comme  Sganarelle,  qui  a  dit  ce  mot  sacra- 
mentel  et  profond,  —  *  La  matiere  est-elle  louable'?'  II  trouve  dans 
les  excrements  le  secret  des  souffrances  humaines.  Son  trepied  pro- 
phetique  et  medical,  c'est  une  chaise  percee.  —  (Idem,  p.  66.) 

"  Sterculius.  (Myth.)  surnom  donn6  a  Saturne,  parcequ'il  fut  le 
premier  qui  apprit  aux  hommes  ^  fumer  les  terres  pour  les  rendre  fer- 
tiles." — ("Encyc.  Kaisonne  des  Sciences,"  etc.,  Neufchatel,  1765, 
tome  quinzieme,  art.  "Sterculius.") 

The  Romans  "  had  a  god  of  ordure  named  Stercntius ;  one  for  other 
conveniences,  Crepitus  ;  a  goddess  for  the  common  sewers,  Cloacina." 
—  (Banier,  "Mythology,"  vol.  i.  p.  199.) 

"  Sterculius  was  one  of  the  surnames  given  to  Saturn  because  he  was 
the  first  that  had  laid  dung  upon  lands  to  make  them  fertile."  —  (Idem, 
vol.  ii.  p.  540.) 

THE   ASSYRIAN   VENUS   HAD    OFFERINGS   OP   DUNG   PLACED    UPON    HER 

ALTARS. 

Another  authority  states  that  "  the  zealous  adorers  of  Siva  rub  the 
forehead,  breast,  and  shoulders  with  ashes  of  cow-dung,"  and,  further, 
he  adds  :  "  It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  Assyrian  Venus,  according  to 

9 


130  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

Lucian,  had  also  offerings  of  dung  placed  upon  her  altars."  —  (Maurice, 
"Indian  Antiquities,"  London,  1800,  vol.  i.  pp.  172,  173.)  ^ 

THE   MEXICAN    GODDESS    8UCHIQUECAL    EATS    ORDURE. 

The  Mexicans  had  a  goddess,  of  whom  we  read  the  following :  — 
Father  Fabreya  says,  in  his  commentary  on  the  Codex  Borgianus,  that 
the  mother  of  the  human  race  is  there  represented  in  a  state  of  humilia- 
tion, eating  cuitlatl  {kopros,  Greek).  The  vessel  in  the  left  hand  of 
Suchiquecal  contains  "  mierda,'^  according  to  the  interpreter  of  these 
paintings. — (See  note  to  p.  120,  Kingsborough's  "Mexican  Antiqui- 
ties," vol.  iv.) 

The  Spanish  mierda,  like  the  Greek  kopros,  means  ordure. 

Besides  Suchiquecal,  the  mother  of  the  gods,  who  has  been  repre- 
sented as  eating  excrement  in  token  of  humiliation,  the  jNIexicans  had 
other  deities  whose  functions  were  more  or  less  clearly  complicated 
with  alvine  dejections.  The  most  prominent  of  these  was  Ixcuina 
called,  also,  Tlagolteotl,  of  whom  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  speaks  in 
these  terms  :  The  goddess  of  ordure,  or  Tla^olquani,  the  cater  of  ordure, 
because  she  presided  over  loves  and  carnal  pleasures.^ 

Mendieta  mentions  her  as  masculine,  and  in  these  terms  :  The  god 
of  vices  and  dirtinesses,  whom  they  called  Tlazulteotl.' 

Bancroft  speaks  of  "  the  Mexican  goddess  of  carnal  love,  called  Tla- 
zoltecotl,  Ixcuina,  Tlacloquani,"  etc.,  and  says  that  she  "had  in 
her  service  a  crowd  of  dwarfs,  buffoons,  and  hunchbacks,  who  diverted 
her  with  their  songs  and  dances  and  acted  as  meaeengers  to  such  gods 
as  she  took  a  fancy  to.  The  last  name  of  this  goddess  means  "  eater 
of  filthy  things,"  referring,  it  is  said,  to  her  function  of  hearing  and 
pardoning  the  confessions  of  men  and  women  guilty  of  unclean  and 

^  "Is  Maurice's  reference  to  Lucian  correct?  There  is  nothing  of  the  kind  in 
the  Dea  Syra,  nor  can  I  find  it  elsewhere  in  his  works,  though  the  Index  by  Eentz 
is  practically  a  Concordance.  Still,  I  do  not  affirm  thai  it  is  not  there."  —  (Per- 
sonal letter  from  Professor  W.  Robertson  Smith,  Christ  College,  Cambridge, 
England.) 

By  a  reference  to  page  36,  it  will  be  seen  that  Sakya-muni  eats  his  own  excre- 
ment, and  one  of  the  Bourkans  or  gods  of  the  Kalmucks  is  represented  as  addicted 
to  the  same  filthy  habit. 

2  Tla9olteotl,  la  deese  de  I'ordure,  ou  Tla(;olquani,  la  mangeuse  d'ordure,  parce- 
qu'elle  prcsidait  aux  amours  et  aux  plaisirs  lubriques.  —  (Brasseur  de  Bourbourg, 
introduction  to  Landa,  French  edition,  Paris,  1864,  p.  87.) 

8  El  dios  de  los  vicios  y  snciedades  que  le  decian  Tlazulteotl.  —  (Mendieta,  in 
Icazbalceta,  Mexico,  1870,  vol.  i.  p.  81.) 


EXCREMENT   GODS   OF  ROMANS   AND   EGYPTIANS.  131 

carnal  crimes.  —  (Bancroft,  H.  H.  "  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  Slope," 
vol.  iii.  p.  380.) 

In  the  manuscript  explaining  the  Codex  Telleriano,  given  in  Kings- 
borough's  "Mexican  Antiquities,"  vol.  v.  p.  131,  occurs  the  name  of 
the  goddess  Ochpaniztli,  whose  feast  fell  on  the  12th  of  September  of 
our  calendar.  She  was  described  as  "  the  one  who  sinned  by  eating 
the  fruit  of  the  tree."  The  Spanish  monks  styled  her,  as  well  as 
another  goddess,  Tla9olteotl, —  "La  diosa  de  basura  6  pecado."  But 
"basura"  is  not  the  alternative  of  sin  (pecado);  it  means  "dung, 
manure,  ordure,  excrement."  ^  It  is  possible  that,  in  their  zeal  to  dis- 
cover analogies  between  the  Aztec  and  Christian  religions,  the  early 
missionaries  passed  over  a  number  of  points  now  left  to  conjecture. 

In  the  same  volume  of  Kingsborough,  p.  136,  there  is  an  allusion 
to  the  offerings  or  sacrifices  made  Tepeololtec,  "  que,  en  romance, 
quiere  decir  sacrificios  de  mierda,"  which,  "  in  plain  language,  signifies 
sacrifices  of  excrement.  Nothing  further  can  be  adduced  upon  the 
subject,  although  a  note  at  the  foot  of  this  page,  in  Kingsborough, 
says  that  here  several  pages  of  the  Codex  Talleriano  had  been  obliter- 
ated or  mutilated,  probably  by  some  over-zealous  expurgator. 

Deities,  created  in  the  ignorance  or  superstitious  fears  of  devotees, 
are  essentially  man-like  in  their  attributes ;  where  they  are  depicted  as 
cruel  and  sanguinary  toward  their  enemies,  the  nation  adoring  them, 
no  matter  how  pacific  to-day,  was  once  cruel  and  sanguinary  likewise. 
Anthropophagous  gods  are  worshipped  only  by  the  descendants   of 

^  According  to  Neumann  and  Baretti's  Velasquez,  while,  according  to  the  Dic- 
tionary of  the  Spanish  Academy,  the  meaning  is  "the  dirt  and  refuse  collected  in 
sweeping,  — the  sweepings  and  dung  of  stables."  The  same  idea  has  since  been 
found  in  an  extract  from  an  ancient  writer,  given  in  "Melusine,"  May  5,  1888.  — 
(Paris,  Gaidoz.) 

"  Les  Esprits  forts  de  I'Antiquite  Classique.  Eusfebe,  dans  sa  '  Preparation  Evan- 
gelique'  (XIII.  13),  cite  quelques  vers  de  Xenophane  de  Colophone  sur  I'unit^  et 
I'immortalite  de  Dieu  qui  ne  pent  ressembler  aux  hommes  ni  en  forme  ni  en  esprit. 
Ces  vers  se  temiinent  ainsi  : 

'  Mais  si  les  bceufs  et  les  lions  avaient  des  mains,  —  s'ils  savaient  dessiner  avec  ces 
mains,  et  produire  les  memes  oeuvres  que  les  hommes,  —  ils  (les  dieux)  seraient  sem- 
blables  aux  bceufs  pour  les  bceufs  et  semblables  aux  chevaux  pour  les  chevaux.  Et 
ceux-ci  dessineraient  les  figures  des  dieux  et  ils  leur  feraient  des  corps  semblables 
h  ceux  qu'ils  ont  eux-memes.'"  —  Patrologie  Grecque  de  Migne,  t.  xxi.  col.  1121, 
H.  G.  —  Voir  aussi  J.  Bizouard  "Rapports de  I'homme avec le  demon,"  Paris,  1864, 
con9us  dans  le  meme  esprit.") 

Andrew  Lang  regards  Tlazolteotl  as  the  "Aphrodite  of  Mexico."  —  ("Myth, 
Rit.,  and  Relig."  vol.  ii.  p.  42.) 


132  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

cannibals,  and  excrement-eaters  only  by  the  progeny  of  those  who 
were  not  unacquainted  with  human  ordure  as  an  article  of  food. 

ISRAELITISH    DUNG    GODS. 

Dulaure  quotes  from  a  number  of  authorities  to  show  that  the  Israel- 
ites and  Moabites  had  the  same  ridiculous  and  disgusting  ceremonial  in 
their  worship  of  Bel-phegor.  The  devotee  presented  his  naked  poste- 
rior before  the  altar  and  relieved  his  entrails,  making  an  offering  to  the 
idol  of  the  foul  emanations.^  Dung  gods  are  also  mentioned  as  having 
been  known  to  the  chosen  people  during  the  time  of  their  idolatry.'^ 

Mr.  John  Frazer,  LL.D.,  describing  the  ceremony  of  initiation,  known 
to  the  Australians  as  the  "  Bora,"  and  which  he  defines  to  be  "  certain 
ceremonies  of  initiation  through  which  a  youth  passes  when  he  reaches 
the  age  of  puberty  to  qualify  him  for  a  place  among  the  men  of  the 
tribe  and  for  the  privileges  of  manhood.  By  these  ceremonies  he  is 
made  acquainted  with  his  father's  gods,  the  mythical  lore  of  the  tribe 

1  L'adorateur  presentait  devant  I'autel  son  posterieur  nu,  soulageait  ses  entrailles 
et  faisait  k  I'idole  une  offiande  de  sa  puante  dejection.  —  (Dulaure,  "  Des  Divinites 
Generatrices,"  Paris,  1825,  p.  76.) 

Philo  says  the  devotee  of  Baal-Peor  presented  to  the  idol  all  the  outward  orifices 
of  the  body.  Another  authority  says  that  the  worshipper  not  only  presented  all 
these  to  the  idol,  but  that  the  emanations  or  excretions  were  also  presented,  —  tears 
from  the  eyes,  wax  from  the  ears,  pus  from  the  nose,  saliva  from  the  mouth,  and 
urine  and  dejecta  from  the  lower  openings.  This  was  the  god  to  which  the  Jews 
joined  themselves  ;  and  these,  in  all  probability,  were  the  ceremonies  they  practised 
in  his  worship.  —  (Robert  Allen  Campbell,  Phallic  Worship,  St.  Louis,  1888,  p.  171.) 

Still  another  authority  saj's  the  worshipper,  j)resenting  his  bare  posterior  to  the 
altar,  relieved  his  bowels,  and  offered  the  result  to  the  idol:  "  Eo  quod  distende- 
bant  coram  illo  foramen  podicis  et  stercus  off'erebaut."  —  (Hargrave  Jennings, 
Phallicism,  London,  1884,  quoting  Rabbi  Solomon  Jarchi,  in  his  Commentary  on 
Numbers  xxv. ) 

These  two  citations  go  to  show  that  the  worshipper  intended  making  not  a  merely 
ceremonial  off'ering  of  Hatulence,  but  an  actual  oblation  of  excrement,  such  as  has 
been  stated,  was  jdaced  upon  the  altars  of  their  near  neighbors,  the  Assyrians,  in  the 
devotions  tendered  their  Venus. 

2  Ye  have  seen  dung  gods,  wood  and  stone.  —  (Deut.  xxix.  17.  See  Cruden's 
Concordance,  Articles  "  Dung"  and  "  Dungy,"  but  no  light  is  thrown  upon  the  ex- 
pression.) 

And  ye  have  seen  their  abominations  and  their  idols  (detestable  things),  wood 
and  stone,  silver  and  gold,  which  were  among  them.  — (Lange's  Commentary  on 
Deuteronomy,  edited  by  Dr.  Philip  Schaff",  New  York,  1879.  But  m  footnote  one 
reads:  "Margin — dungy  gods  from  the  shape  of  the  ordure,  literally  thin  clods 
or  balls,  or  that  which  can  be  rolled  about.  —  A.  G.") 


EXCREMENT   GODS   OF  ROMANS   AND   EGYPTIANS.  133 

and  the  duties  required  of  him  as  a  man.  .  .  .  The  whole  is  under  the 
tutelage  of  a  high  spirit  called  '  Dharamoolun.'  .  .  .  But,  present  at 
these  ceremonies,  although  having  no  share  in  them,  is  an  evil  spirit 
called  '  Gunungdhukhya,'  '  eater  of  excrement,'  whom  the  blacks  greatly 
dread."  Compare  this  word  "Gunungdhukhya,"  with  the  Sanskrit 
root-word  "  Gu,"  "  excrement ; "  "  Dhuk  "  is  the  Australian  "  to  eat." 
—  (Personal  letter  from  John  Frazer,  Esq.,  LL.D.,  dated  Sydney,  New 
South  Wales,  Dec.  24,  1889.  Continuing  his  remarks  upon  the  subject 
of  the  evil  spirit  "  Gunungdhukhya,"  he  says  :  "  This  being  is  certainly 
supposed  to  eat  ordure  ;   and  such  is  the  meaning  of  his  name.") 

King  James  gravely  informs  us  that  "  Witches  ofttimes  confesse  that 
in  their  worship  of  the  Devil,  .  .  .  Their  form  of  adoration  to  be  the 
kissing  of  his  hinder  parts."  —  ("  Daemonologie,"  London,  1616,  p. 
113.)  This  book  appeared  with  a  commendatory  preface  from  Hinton, 
one  of  the  bishops  of  the  English  Church. 

"  Witches  paid  homage  to  the  devil  who  was  present,  usually  in  the 
form  of  a  goat,  dog,  or  ape.  To  him  they  offered  themselves,  body  and 
soul,  and  kissed  him  under  the  tail,  holding  a  lighted  candle."  — 
("  History  of  the  Inquisition,"  Henry  C.  Lea,  New  York,  1888,  vol.  iii., 
p.  500.) 

Knowing  of  the  existence  of  "dung  gods"  among  Romans,  Egyp- 
tians, Hebrews,  and  Moabites,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  insist,  in  the 
present  case,  upon  a  rigid  adherence  to  the  text,  and  to  assert  that, 
where  it  speaks  of  a  sacrifice  as  a  sacrifice  of  excrement  and  designates 
a  deity  as  an  eater  of  excrement,  it  means  what  it  says,  and  should  not 
be  distorted,  under  the  plea  of  symbolism,  into  a  perversion  of  facts 
and  ideas. 

Some  writers  made  out  the  name  of  the  god  "  Belzebul "  to  be  iden- 
tical with  "Beelzebub,"  and  to  mean  "Lord  of  Dung,"  but  this  inter- 
pretation is  disputed  by  Schaff-Herzog. —  ("Encyclopaedia  of  Religious 
Knowledge,"  New  York,  article  "  Beelzebub.") 


134  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 


XX. 

LATRINES. 

'^pHE  mention  of  the  Roman  goddess  Cloacina  suggests  an  inquiry 
into  tiie  general  history  of  latrines  and  urinals.  Their  introduc- 
tion cannot  be  ascribed  to  purely  hygienic  considerations,  since  many 
nations  of  comparatively  high  development  have  managed  to  get  along 
without  them ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  tribes  in  low  stages  of  cul- 
ture have  resorted  to  them. 

In  the  chapter  treating  upon  witchcraft  and  incantation  enough  tes- 
timony has  been  accumulated  to  convince  the  most  sceptical  that  the 
belief  was  once  widely  diffused  of  the  power  possessed  by  sorcerers,  et  id 
omne  genus,  over  the  unfortunate  wretches  whose  excreta,  solid  or  liquid, 
fell  into  their  hands ;  terror  may,  therefore,  have  been  the  impelling 
motive  for  scattering,  secreting,  or  preserving  in  suitable  receptacles 
the  alvine  dejections  of  a  community.  Afterwards,  as  experience 
taught  men  that  in  these  egestse  were  valuable  fertilizers  for  the  fields 
and  vineyards,  or  fluids  for  bleaching  and  tanning,  the  political  authori- 
ties made  their  preservation  a  matter  of  legal  obligation. 

The  Trojans  defecated  in  the  full  light  of  day,  if  we  can  credit  the 
statement  made  to  that  effect  in  the  "Bibliothcca  Scatalogica,"  p.  8,  in 
which  it  is  shown  that  a  French  author  (name  not  given)  wrote  a 
facetious  but  erudite  treatise  upon  this  subject. 

Captain  Cook  tells  us  that  the  New  Zealanders  had  privies  to  every 
three  or  four  of  their  houses ;  he  also  takes  occasion  to  say  that  there 
were  no  privies  in  Madrid  until  17G0  ;  that  the  determination  of  the 
king  to  introduce  them  and  sewers,  and  to  prohibit  the  throwing  of 
luiman  ordure  out  of  windows  after  nightfall,  as  had  been  the  custom, 
nearly  precipitated  a  revolution.  —  (See  in  Hawkesworth's  "Voyages," 
London,  1773,  vol.  ii.  p.  314.) 

"  These  were  more  cleanly  than  most  savages  about  excrements. 
Every  house  had  a  concealed  (if  possible)  privy  near,  and  in  largo 
'  Pas  '  a  pole  was  run  out  over  the  cliff  to  sit  on  sailor-fashion."  — 


LATRINES.  135 

("The  Maoris  of  New  Zealand,"  E.  Tregear,  in  "Journal  of  the  An- 
thropological Institute,"  London,  November,  1889.) 

Marquesas  Islands.  "  Tliey  are  peculiarly  cleanly  in  regard  to  the 
egestse.  At  the  Society  Islands  the  wanderer's  eyes  and  nose  are 
offended  every  morning  in  the  midst  of  a  path  with  the  natural  effects 
of  a  sound  digestion  ;  but  the  natives  of  the  Marquesas  are  accustomed, 
after  the  manner  of  our  cats,  to  bury  the  offensive  objects  in  the  earth. 
At  Taheite,  indeed,  they  depend  on  the  friendly  assistance  of  rats,  who 
greedily  devour  these  odoriferous  dainties ;  nay,  they  seem  to  be  con- 
vinced that  their  custom  is  the  most  proper  in  the  woi'ld  ;  for  their 
witty  countryman,  Tupaya,  found  fault  with  our  want  of  delicacy  when 
he  saw  a  small  building  appropriated  to  the  rites  of  Cloacina,  in  every 
house  at  Batavia." —  (Forster,  "Voyage  round  the  World,"  London, 
1777,  voLii.  p.  28.) 

Forster  speaks  of  the  traffic  between  the  English  sailors  and  the 
vi'omen  of  Tahiti,  in  which  the  latter  parted  with  their  personal  favors 
in  return  for  red  feathers  and  fresh  pork  ;  in  consequence  of  a  too  free 
indulgence  in  this  heavy  food,  the  ladies  suff'ered  from  indigestion. 
"  The  goodness  of  their  appetites  and  digestion,  exposed  them,  how- 
ever, to  inconveniences  of  restlessness,  and  often  disturbed  those  who 
wished  to  sleep  after  the  fatigues  of  the  day.  On  certain  urgent  occa- 
sions they  always  required  the  attendance  of  their  lovers ;  but,  as  they 
were  frequently  refused,  the  decks  were  made  to  resemble  the  paths  in 
the  islands."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  83.) 

In  ancient  Rome  there  were  public  latrines,  but  no  privies  at- 
tached to  houses.  There  were  basins  and  tubs,  which  were  emptied 
daily  by  servants  detailed  for  the  purpose.  No  closet-paper  was  in 
use,  as  may  be  imagined,  none  having  yet  been  invented  or  introduced 
in  Europe,  but  in  each  public  latrine,  there  was  a  bucket  filled  with 
salt  water,  and  a  stick  having  a  sponge  tied  to  one  end,  with  which 
the  passer-by  cleansed  his  person,  and  then  replaced  the  stick  in  the 
tub,^  Seneca,  in  his  Epistle  No.  70,  describes  the  suicide  of  a  German 
slave  who  rammed  one  of  these  sticks  down  his  throat. 

1  There  is  a  reference  in  Martial  to  this  use  of  the  sponge  and  stick  (see  Epigram 
XLVIII.,  in  English  translation,  edition  of  London,  1871).  Martial  also  speaks  of 
a  Roman  lady  whose  close-stool  was  of  gold,  but  her  drinking-cup  of  glass,  — 

"  Ventris  onus  puro,  nee  te  pudet  excipis  auro ; 
Sed  hibis  in  vitreo,  chareus,  ergo  cacas."  — 

(Epigram  XXXVI.,  quoted  by  Harington,  "  Ajax,"  p.  37.) 

High  officials  of  Corea  urinate  in  public  into  brass  bowls,  which  are  carried  by 


136  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

The  warning  "  Commit  no  nuisance,"  or  in  French  "  II  est  defeudu  de 
faire  ioi  des  ordures,"  is  traceable  back  to  the  time  of  the  Eonmns, 
who  devoted  to  the  wrath  of  the  twelve  great  gods,  "and  of  Jupiter 
and  Diana  as  well,  all  who  did  any  indecency  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  temples  or  monuments."  "  On  nous  saura  gre  de  rapporter  ici  une 
inscription  qui  se  lisait  autrefois  sur  les  thermos  de  Titus;  *  Duodecim 
Dios  et  Dianam  et  Jovem  Optimum  Maximum  habeat  iratos  quisquis  hie 
minxerit  aut  cacarit. '  "  In  Genoa,  excommunication  was  threatened 
against  all  who  infringed  upon  this  same  prohibition. 

Privieg  were  ordered  for  each  house  in  Paris  in  1513,  whence  we 
may  infer  that  some  house-builders  had  previously  of  their  own  im- 
pulse added  such  conveniences;  as  early  as  1372,  and  again  in  1395, 
there  were  royal  ordinances  forbidding  the  throwing  of  ordures  out  of 
the  windows  in  Paris,  which  gives  us  the  right  to  conclude  that  the 
custom  must  have  been  general  and  offensive ;  the  same  dispositions 
were  taken  for  the  city  of  Bordeaux  in  1585. 

Obscene  poetry  was  known  in  latrines  in  Rome  as  in  our  own  day, 
and  some  of  the  compositions  have  come  down  to  us.  —  (See  "  Biblio- 
theca  Scatalogica,"  pp.  13-17.) 

The  Romans  protected  their  walls  "against  such  as  commit  nui- 
sances ...  by  consecrating  the  walls  so  exposed  with  the  picture  of  a 
deity  or  some  other  hallowed  emblem,  and  by  denouncing  the  wrath  of 
heaven  against  those  who  should  be  impious  enough  to  pollute  what  it 
was  their  duty  to  reverence.  The  figure  of  a  snake,  it  appears,  was 
sometimes  employed  for  this  purpose.  .  .  .  The  snake,  it  is  well 
known,  was  reckoned  among  the  gods  of  the  heatliens." —  ("Vestiges 
of  Ancient  Manners  and  Customs,"  Rev.  John  James  Blunt,  London, 
1823,  p.  43.) 

Herodotus  informs  his  readers  that  the  Egyptians  "  ease  themselves 
in  their  houses,  but  eat  out  of  doors,  alleging  that  whatever  is  indecent, 
though  necessary,  ought  to  be  done  in  private,  but  what  is  not  inde- 
cent openly."  —  ("  Euterpe,"  p.  35.) 

Herodotus  also  speaks  of  the  Egyptian  king  Amasis  having  made  an 
idol  out  of  a  gold  foot-pan,  "  in  which  the  Egyptians  formerly  vomited, 

attendants  in  a  sort  of  net  or  fillet  and  presented  when  required.  —  (Mr.  W.  W. 
KockhiU. 

The  monasteries  and  nunneries  of  Thibet  were  provided  with  latrines.  Among 
the  sins  against  which  the  nuns  (Bhikshuni)  were  warned  were,  "  Si  une  bhik- 
shuni  va  seule  aux  lieux,  et  est,"  etc.  —  ("  Pratikamoksha  Sutra,"  Thibetan  version, 
translated  by  W.  W.  liockhill,  Paris,  1884,  p.  44,  "Ecole  des  langues  Orientales 
vivantes.") 


LATRINES.  137 

made  water,  and  washed  their  feet"  ("Euterpe").  Minutius  Felix, 
in  his  "Octavius,"  refers  to  this,  and  takes  umbrage  that  heathen  idols 
made  of  such  foul  materials  should  be  adored  (see  his  chapter  xxv.). 

Tournefort  mentions  latrines  in  Marseilles.  "  They  make  advantage 
of  the  very  excrements  of  the  Gally-Slaves  by  placing  at  one  end  of  the 
Gallies  pi-oper  vessels  for  receiving  a  manure  so  necessary  to  the  coun- 
try."—  ("  A  Voyage  to  the  Levant,"  edition  of  London,  1718,  vol.  i, 
pp.  13-U.) 

There  must  have  been  latrines  in  Scotland,  because  James  1.  of  that 
kingdom  was  killed  in  one  in  the  Monastery  of  the  Black  Friars,  in  Perth, 
in  A.  D.  1437;  yet  for  many  years  later  pedestrians  in  the  streets  of 
Edinburgh,  after  night-fall,  took  their  own  risks  of  the  filthy  deluge 
which  house-maids  were  wont  to  pour  down  from  the  windows  of  the 
lofty  houses. 

"  As  in  modern  Edinburgh  so  in  ancient  Eome,  night  was  the  time 
observed  by  the  careful  housekeeper  for  throwing  her  slops  from  the 
upper  windows  into  the  open  drain  that  ran  through  the  street  beneath." 
—  (Footnote  to  page  146  of  Edward  Walford's  (M.A.  of  Baliol,  Ox- 
ford) ed.  of  Juvenal,  in  "  Ancient  Classics  for  English  Readers,"  Phila- 
delphia, 1872,  quoting  from  Juvenal  the  line,  "Clattering  the  storm 
descends  from  heights  unknown,"  Satire  III.,  line  274.) 

"  'T  is  want  of  sense  to  sup  abroad  too  late 
Unless  thou  first  hast  settled  thy  estate  ; 
As  many  fates  attend  thy  steps  to  meet 
As  there  are  waking  windows  in  the  street : 
Bless  the  good  gods  and  think  thy  chance  is  rare 
To  have  a  piss-pot  only  for  thy  share." 

(Dryden's  translation  of  the  Third  Satire  of  Juvenal.) 

**  And  behold,  there  is  nurra  goaks  in  the  whole  kingdom  (Scotland), 
nor  anything  for  pore  servants,  but  a  barrel  with  a  pair  of  tongs  thrown 
across,  and  all  the  chairs  of  the  family  are  emptied  into  this  here  bar- 
rel once  a  day ;  and  at  ten  o'clock  at  night  the  whole  cargo  is  flung  out 
of  a  back  windere  that  looks  into  some  street  or  lane,  and  the  maid 
calls,  '  Gardy  loo  ! '  to  the  passengers,  which  signifies,  '  Lord  have 
mercy  upon  you  1 '  and  this  is  done  every  night  in  every  house  in 
Hadinborough."  —  (''Humphrey  Clinker,"  Tobias  Smollett,  edition  of 
London,  1872,  p.  542.) 

The  above  seems  to  have  been  a  French  expression,  —  "  Gare  de 
I'eau." 
.    "  The  cry  of  all  the  South  was  that  the  public  offices,  the  army,  the 


133  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

navy,  were  filled  with  high-cheeked  DrummoiKls  and  Erskines  and 
McGillvrays.  .  .  .  All  the  old  jokes  on  hills  without  trees,  girls  with- 
out stockings,  men  eating  the  food  of  horses,  pails  emptied  from  the 
fourteenth  story,  were  pointed  against  these  lucky  adventurers."  — 
(T.  B.  Macaulay,  "The  Earl  of  Chatham,"  American  edition,  Appletou 
and  Co.,  New  York,  1874,  p.  720.) 

The  addition  of  privies  to  the  homes  of  the  gentry  would  appear  to 
have  been  an  innovation  in  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  else  there 
would  not  have  been  so  much  comment  made  upon  the  action  of  Sir 
John  Harington,  her  distant  cousin,  who  erected  one  as  a  fitting  con- 
venience to  his  new  house,  near  Bath,  and  published  a  very  Rabelaisian 
volume  upon  the  subject  in  London  in  1596.  The  title  of  the  book, 
being  quite  long,  —  "A  Discourse  on  a  Stale  Subject,  called  the  Meta- 
morphosis of  Ajas,"  —  will  in  subsequent  citations  be  given  simply  as 
Hariugton's  "  Ajax."  From  the  description  of  the  latrine  in  question 
there  is  no  doubt  that  Harington  anticipated  nearly  all  the  mecha- 
nism of  modern  days. 

liichard  III.  is  represented  as  having  been  seated  in  a  latrine,  "sit- 
ting on  a  draught,"  when  he  was  "  devising  with  Terril  how  to  have 
his  nephews  privily  murdered."  —  (Harington,  "Ajax,"  p.  46.) 

There  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that  all  houses  in  England,  and  all 
Continental  Europe  as  well,  were  provided  with  receptacles  for  urine 
in  the  bed-chambers,  even  if  no  regular  latrines  existed  outside  of  the 
monasteries  and  other  community-houses.  Dr.  Robert  Fletcher,  U.  S. 
Army,  who  has  contributed  the  following,  is  of  the  opinion  that  these 
conveniences  were  provided  for  ladies  only,  and  submits  the  following 
passages  in  support  of  his  conclusions  :  — 

"  Hamjo,  in  the  *  Wanderer,'  part  2,  by  Sir  Thomas  Killigrew,  de- 
scribing to  Senilia  the  probable  manners  of  a  rude  husband,  says  that, 
on  retiring  to  bed,  'the  gyant  stretches  himself,  yawns,  and  sighs 
a  belch  or  two,  stales  in  your  pot,  farts  as  loud  as  a  musket  for  a 
jest,' "  etc. 

In  Douce's  "Illustrations  of  Shakspeare"  is  a  curious  print  of  a 
bishop  blessing  a  newly  married  pair  in  the  bridal  bed  ;  on  the  lady's 
side  a  chamber-pot  is  ostentatiously  displayed. 

Douce  quotes  the  following  from  a  rare  "  Morality,"  entitled,  "  Le 
Condemnation  des  Banquets:"  "  Pause  pour  pisser  le  fol.  II  prengt 
un  coffinet  en  lieu  de  orinal  et  pisse  dedans  et  tout  coule  par  has." 

Hobbs,  the  Tanner  of  Tamworth,  introduced  by  Heywood  in  his  play 
of  "  King  Edward  the  Fourth,"  the  hero  of  the  old  ballad,  furnished 


LATRINES.  139 

his  rooms  with  urinals  suited  to  his  trade.  He  says  to  his  guests,  the 
King  and  Sellinger  :  "  Come,  take  away,  and  let 's  to  bed.  Ye  sliall 
have  clean  sheets,  Ned  ;  but  they  be  coarse,  good  strong  hemp,  of  my 
daughter's  own  spinning.  And  I  tell  thee  your  chamber-pot  must  be 
a  fair  horn,  a  badge  of  our  occupation  ;  for  we  buy  no  bending  pewter 
nor  breaking  earth." — ("  1  King  Edward  the  Fourth,"  iii.  2,  Hey- 
wood,  1600.) 

Additional  references  of  the  same  tenor  are  to  be  found  in  the  "  Pil- 
grims," Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  ii.  1  :  "  The  Scourge  of  Villauie," 
Marston,  1599,  satire  2  ;  and  in  the  following,  which  does  not  accord 
with  Dr.  Fletcher's  opinion  that  such  utensils  were  provided  solely  for 
the  female  members  of  the  household. 

"  Host.  Hostlers,  you  kuaves  and  commanders,  take  the  horses  of 
the  knights  and  competitors;  your  honorable  hulks  have  put  into  har- 
bor; they'll  take  in  fresh  water  here,  and  I  have  provided  clean 
chamber-pots."  — ("The  ISlerry  Devil  of  Edmonton,"  1608.) 

Such  vessels  were  in  use  in  Ireland,  where  they  were  called  *'  omar- 
fuail,"  from  omar,  a  vessel,  and  fuail,  urine.  They  must  have  been 
employed  from  the  earliest  centuries.  "  And  they  (the  Sybarites) 
were  the  first  people  who  introduced  the  custom  of  bringing  chamber- 
pots into  entertainments"  (Athenaus, book  xii.  cap.  17). 

It  is  not  easy  to  detect  any  essential  difference  between  the  manners 
of  the  people  of  Iceland,  as  described  by  Bleekmaus  on  another  page, 
and  those  of  the  more  polished  Romans. 

Bed-pans  were  used  in  France  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  They  are  noted  in  "  The  Farce  of  Master  Pathelin  "  (a.  d. 
1480).  —  (See  "Le  Moyon  Age  Medical,"  Dupouy,  Paris,  1888,  p.  280 
€t  seq.,  and  the  translation  of  the  same  by  Minor,  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
1890,  p.  82.) 

"  Maids  need  no  more  their  silver  pisse-pots  scour, 

Presumptuous  pisse-pot,  how  did'st  thou  offend  ? 
Compelling  females  on  their  hams  to  bend  ? 
To  kings  aud  queens  we  humbly  bend  the  knee, 
But  queens  themselves  are  forced  to  stoop  to  thee." 

("On  Melting  down  the  Plate,  or  the  Piss-Pot's  Farewell," 
State  Poems,  vol.  i.  part  2,  p.  215,  a.  d.  1697.) 

"What  need  hath  Nature  of  silver  dishes  or  gold  chamber-pots  ?  " 

("  The  Staple  of  News,"  Ben  Jonson,  iiL  2  ;  London,  162S.) 


140  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

"  In  the  '  Chronicle  of  London,'  written  in  the  fifteenth  centnr}',  a 
curious  anecdote  is  related,  to  the  effect  that  in  A.  D.  1258-60,  a  Jew, 
on  Saturday,  fell  into  a  '  privy '  at  Tewksbury,  but  out  of  reverence 
for  his  Sabbath,  would  not  allow  himself  to  be  drawn  out.  The  next 
day  being  Sunda}',  the  Earl  of  Gloucester  would  not  let  any  one  draw 
him  out ; "  and  so,  says  the  Chronicle,  "  the  Jew  died   in  the  privy." 

—  ("A  Chronicle  of  London  from  1089  to  1483,"  London,  1827,  p.  20, 
quoted  by  Buckle  in  "Commonplace  Book,"  p.  507,  in  vol.  ii.  of  his 
Works,  London,  1872.) 

"  Heliogabalus'  body  was  thrown  into  a  jakes,  as  writeth  Suetonius." 

—  (Harington's  "Ajax,"  p.  46.) 

Heliogabalus  was  killed  in  one  (latrine) ;  Arius,  the  great  heresi- 
arch,  and  Pope  Leo,  his  antagonist,  had  the  same  fate.  Charles  the 
Fifth,  Emperor  of  Germany  and  Spain,  was  born  in  one  in  the  palace 
of  Ghent,  of  Jeanne  of  Aragon,  in  1500  j  hence,  they  must  have  been 
introduced  in  the  localities  named.  —  (See  Biblioth.  Scatal.  p.  17.) 

"  Urinary  reservoirs  were  erected  in  the  streets  of  Rome,  either  for 
the  purpose  of  public  cleanliness,  or  for  the  use  of  the  fullers,  who 
were  accustomed  to  purchase  their  contents  of  the  Roman  government 
during  the  reign  of  Vespasian,  and'  perhaps  other  emperors,  at  a  certain 
annual  impost,  and  which,  prior  to  the  invention  or  general  use  of 
soap,  was  the  substance  employed  principally  in  their  mills  for  cleans- 
ing cloths  and  stuffs  previous  to  their  being  dyed."  —  (John  Mason 
Good,  translation  of  Lucretius'  "De  Natura  Rerum,"  London,  1805, 
vol.  ii.  p.  154,  footnote.) 

"Vases,  called  Gastra,  for  the  relief  of  passengers,  were  placed  by 
the  Romans  iipon  the  edges  of  roads  and  streets."  —  (Fosbroke, 
"  Encyc.  of  Ant.,"  London,  vol.  i.  p.  526,  article  "  Urine.") 

"  Les  Chinois  semblent  manquer  d'engrais,  car  on  trouve  de  tous 
cotes  des  lieux  d'aisance  pour  les  besoins  des  voyageurs."  —  ("Voyage 
a  P^kin,"  De  Guignes,  Paris,  1808,  vol.  i.  p.  284 ;  and  again,  vol.  iii. 
p.  322.) 

"  Large  vases  of  stone-ware  are  sunk  in  the  ground  at  convenient 
places  for  the  use  of  passing  travellers."  —  ("  Chinese  Repository," 
Canton,  1835,  vol.  iii.  p.  134.) 

"  A  traveller  who  lately  returned  from  Pekin  asserts  that  there  is 
plenty  to  smell  in  that  city,  but  very  little  to  see.  .  .  .  The  houses 
are  all  very  low  and  mean,  the  streets  are  wholly  unpaved,  and  are 
always  very  muddy  and  very  dusty,  and  as  there  are  no  sewers  or  cess- 


LATRINES.  141 

pools,  the  filthiness  of  the  town  ia  indescribable." —  ("Chicago  News," 
copied  in  the  "  Press,"  Philadelphia,  Penn.,  May  14,  1889.) 

"By  the  Mahometan  law,  the  body  becomes  unclean  after  each 
evacuation  .  .  .  both  greater  and  smaller  .  .  .  requires  an  ablution, 
according  to  circumstances.  ...  If  a  drop  of  urine  touches  the 
clothes,  they  must  be  washed."  For  fear  that  their  garments  have 
been  so  defiled,  "  the  Bokhariots  frequently  repeat  their  prayers  stark 
naked."  .  .  .  The  matter  of  cleaning  the  body  after  an  evacuation  of 
any  kind  is  defined  by  religious  ritual.  "  The  law  commands  '  Is- 
tindjah  '  (removal),  '  istinkah  '  (ablution),  and  'istibra'  (drying,)"  — 
i.  e.,  a  small  clod  of  earth  is  first  used  for  the  local  cleansing,  then 
water  at  least  twice,  and  finally  a  piece  of  linen  a  yard  in  length.  .  .  . 
In  Turkey,  Arabia,  and  Persia  all  are  necessary,  and  pious  men  carry 
several  clods  of  earth  for  the  purpose  in  their  turbans.  "  These 
acts  of  purification  are  also  carried  on  quite  publicly  in  the  bazaars, 
from  a  desire  to  make  a  parade  of  their  consistent  piety."  Vambery 
saw  "  a  teacher  give  to  his  pupils,  boys  and  girls,  instruction  in  the 
handling  of  the  clod  of  earth,  and  so  forth,  by  way  of  experiment."  — 
("Sketches  of  Central  Asia,"  Arminius  Vambery,  London,  1868, 
pp.  190,  191.) 

Moslems  \irinate  sitting  down  on  their  heels ;  "  for  a  spray  of  urine 
would  make  hair  and  clothes  ceremonially  impure.  .  .  .  After  urining, 
the  Moslem  wipes  the  os  penis  with  one  to  three  bits  of  stone,  clay,  or 
a  handful  of  earth,  and  he  must  perform  Wuzu  before  he  can  pray." 
Toumefort  ("Voyage  au  Levant,"  vol.  iii.  p.  355)  tells  a  pleasant  story 
about  certain  Christians  at  Constantinople  who  powdered  with  poivre 
d'Inde  the  stones  in  a  wall  where  the  Moslems  were  in  the  habit  of 
rubbing  the  os  penis  by  way  of  wiping."  —  (Burton,  "  Arabian  Nights," 
vol.  ii.  p.  326.  Again,  in  footnote  to  p.  229,  vol.  iii.,  he  says,  "  Scru- 
pulous ]\Ioslems  scratch  the  ground  in  front  of  their  feet  with  a  stick, 
to  prevent  spraying  and  consequent  defilement.") 

Marco  Polo,  in  speaking  of  the  Brahmins,  says,  "  They  ease  them- 
selves in  the  sands,  and  then  disperse  it,  hither  and  thither,  lest  it 
should  breed  worms,  which  might  die  for  want  of  food."  —  ("Travels," 
in  Pinkerton,  vol.  vii.  pp.  164,  165.) 

Speaking  of  the  Mahometans,  Toumefort  says,  "When  they  make 
water,  they  squat  down  like  women,  for  fear  some  drops  of  urine 
should  fall  into  their  breeches.  To  prevent  this  evil,  they  squeeze  the 
part  very  carefully,  and  rub  the  head  of  it  against  the  wall ;  and  one 
may  see  the  stones  worn  in  several  places  by  this  custom.     To  make 


142  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

themselves  sport,  tlie  Christians  smear  the  stoues  sometimes  witli 
Indian  pepper  and  the  root  called  *  Calf  s-Foot,'  or  some  other  hot 
plants,  which  frequently  causes  an  inflammation  in  such  as  happen  to 
use  the  Stone.  As  the  pain  is  very  smart,  the  poor  Turks  commonly 
run  for  a  cure  to  those  very  Christian  surgeons  who  were  the  authors 
of  all  the  mischief.  They  never  fail  to  tell  them  it  is  a  very  dan- 
gerous case,  and  that  they  should  he  obliged,  perhaps,  to  make  an 
amputation.  The  Turks,  on  the  contrary,  protest  and  swear  that  they 
liave  had  no  communication  with  any  sort  of  woman  that  could  be 
suspected.  In  short,  they  wrap  up  the  suffering  part  in  a  Linen 
dipped  in  Oxicrat  tinctured  with  a  little  Bole-Armenic ;  and  this  they 
sell  them  as  a  great  specifick  for  this  kind  of  Mischief."  —  (Tourne- 
fort,  "A  Voyage  to  the  Levant,"  London,  1718,  vol.  ii.  p.  49.) 

"  Some  of  their  doctors  believe  Circumcision  was  not  taken  from  the 
Jews,  but  only  for  the  better  observing  the  Precept  of  Cleanness,  by 
which  they  are  forbidden  to  let  any  Urine  fall  upon  their  flesh.  And 
it  is  certain  that  some  drops  are  always  apt  to  hang  upon  the  Prsepu- 
tium,  especially  among  the  Arabians,  with  whom  that  skin  is  naturally 
much  longer  than  in  other  men."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  46.) 

The  Mahometans  have  "Two  ablutions,  the  great  and  small.  .  .  . 
The  first  is  of  the  whole  body,  but  this  is  enjoined  only  to  "  those 
"  who  have  let  some  larine  drop  upon  their  flesh  when  they  have  made 
water."  This  he  enumerates  among  "  The  Three  great  Defilements 
of  the  Mussulmans." — (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  48.) 

John  Leo  says  of  those  "Arabians  which  inhabit  in  Barborie,  or 
upon  the  Coast  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  .  .  .  Their  churches  they 
frequent  very  diligently,  to  the  end  they  may  repeat  certain  prescript 
and  formall  Praiers,  most  sperstitionsly  perswading  themselves  that 
the  same  day  wherein  they  make  their  praiers,  it  is  not  lawfull  for 
them  to  wash  certaine  of  their  members,  when,  as  at  other  times,  they 
will  wash  their  whole  bodies." — ("Observations  of  Africa,"  in  Pur- 
chas's  "  Pilgrims,"  vol.  ii.  p.  766.) 

"  Les  lieux  destines  k  la  decharge  de  la  nature  .  .  .  sont  toujours 
propres.  .  .  .  Les  Turcs  ne  sont  point  assis  comme  nous  quand  ils 
sont  en  ces  lieux-li,  mais  ils  s'accroupissent  sur  le  trou  qui  n'est  re- 
levc  de  terre  que  d'un  demy-pied  ou  d'un  peu  plus.  .  .  .  Les  Turcs 
et  tons  les  Mahometans  en  general  ne  se  servent  point  de  papier  k  de 
vils  usages,  et  quand  ils  vont  k  ces  sortes  de  lieux  ils  portent  un  pot 
plein  d'eau  pour  se  laver." —  (J.  B.  Tavernier,  "  Relation  de  I'interieur 
du  Sdrail  du  Grand  Seigneur,"  Paris,  1675,  p.  194.) 


LATRINES,  143 

"  Nunquam  Turcas  seu  papyro  pro  anisterglo  uti,  sed  pro  magno 
ipsis  delicti  habere,  et  quidem  ideo,  quia  fortasse  Nomen  Dei  ipsi  in- 
scriptum  sit  vel  inscribi  possit,  refert  Thevenot,  Itinerar.  Orient,  lib.  1, 
cap.  33,  p.  m.  60.  Et  juxta  A.  Bubeqv.,  Ep.  3,  p.  m.  184,  Turcfc 
alvum  excrementia  non  exonerant  quia  aqiiam  secum  poilant,  qua 
partes  obscenas  lavent."  —  (Schurig,  "Chylologia,"  Dresden,  1725, 
p.    796.) 

Rabelais  has  written  a  characteristic  chapter  on  the  expedients  to 
which  men  resorted  before  the  general  introduction  of  paper  for  use  in 
latrines;  see  his  chapter  xiii.,  "  Anisterges." 

**  Nothing  could  be  more  filthy  than  the  state  of  the  palace  and  all 
the  lanes  leading  up  to  it.  It  was  well,  perhaps,  that  we  were  never 
expected  to  go  there ;  for  without  stilts  and  respirators  it  would  have 
been  impracticable,  such  is  the  filthy  nature  of  the  people.  The  king's 
cows  even  are  kept  in  his  palace  enclosure,  the  calves  actually  entering 
the  hut,  where,  like  a  farmer,  Kamresi  walks  among  them,  up  to  his 
ankles  in  filth,  and  inspecting  them,  issues  his  orders  concerning 
them."  —  (Speke,  "Nile,"  London,  1863,  vol.  ii.  p.  526,  describing  the 
palace  of  King  Kamresi,  at  the  head  of  the  Nile.) 

"  Shortly  afterwards,  a  disturbance  arose  between  some  of  my  peo- 
ple and  the  natives,  owing  to  one  of  my  men  who  retired  into  a  patch 
of  cultivated  ground  having  been  discovered  there  by  the  owner.  He 
demanded  compensation  for  his  land  having  been  defiled,  and  had  to 
be  appeased  by  a  present  of  cloth.  If  they  were  only  half  as  particu- 
lar about  their  dwellings  as  their  fields,  it  would  be  a  good  thing,  for 
their  villages  are  filthy  in  the  extreme,  and  would  be  even  worse  but 
for  the  presence  of  large  numbers  of  pigs  which  act  as  scavengers."  — 
("Across  Africa,"  Cameron,  London,  1877,  vol.  ii.  p.  200.) 

"  I  was  disgusted  with  the  custom  which  prevailed  in  the  houses 
like  that  in  which  I  was  lodged,  of  using  the  terrace  as  a  sort  of  closet ; 
and  I  had  great  difficulty  in  preventing  my  guide,  Amer  el  Walati, 
who  still  stayed  with  me  and  made  the  terrace  his  usual  residence,  from 
indulging  in  the  filthy  practice." — (Dr.  Henry  Barth,  "Travels  in 
North  and  Central  Africa,"  Philadelphia,  1859,  p.  429,  description  of 
Timbuctoo.) 

"  They  (the  Tartars)  hold  it  not  good  to  abide  long  in  one  place, 
for  they  will  say  when  they  will  curse  any  of  their  children,  '  I  would 
thou  mightest  tarry  so  long  in  one  place  that  thou  mightest  smell 
thine  own  dung  as  the  Christians  do ; '  and  this  is  the  greatest  curse 
they  have."  —  ("  Notes  of  Richard  Johnson,  servant  to  Master  Richard 


144  SCATALOGIC  EITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

Chancellor,"  in  Piukerton,  vol.  i.  p.  62.  "  Voyages  of  Sir  Hugh  Wil- 
loughby  and  others  to  the  Northern  parts  of  Siberia  and  Russia.") 

The  Tungouses  of  Siberia  told  Sauer  that  "  they  knew  no  greater 
curse  than  to  live  in  one  place  like  a  Russian  or  Yakut,  where  filth 
accumulates  and  fills  the  inhabitants  with  stench  and  disease."  —  (Sauer, 
"  Expedition  to  the  North  parts  of  Russia,"  London,  1802,  p,  49.) 

"It  is  a  common  obloquy  that  the  Turks  (who  still  keep  the  order 
of  Deuteronomy  for  their  ordure)  do  object  to  Christians  that  they  are 
poisoned  with  their  own  dung." —  (Harington,  "  Ajax,"  p.  115.) 

"The  aspect  of  the  village  itself  iS  very  neat,  the  ground  being  often 
swept  befoi'e  the  chief  houses ;  but  very  bad  odors  abound,  owing  to 
there  being  under  each  house  a  stinking  mud-hole,  formed  by  all  waste 
liquids  and  refuse  matter  poured  down  through  the  floor  above.  In 
most  other*  things,  Malays  are  tolerably  clean  —  in  some  scrupulously 
so  —  and  this  peculiar  and  nasty  custom,  which  is  almost  imiversal, 
arises,  I  have  little  doubt,  from  their  having  been  originally  a  water- 
loving  and  maritime  people,  who  built  their  houses  on  posts  in  the 
water,  and  only  migrated  gradually  inland,  first  up  the  rivers  and 
streams,  and  then  into  the  dr}'^  interior. 

"  Habits  which  were  once  so  convenient  and  cleanly,  and  which  had 
been  so  long  practised  as  to  become  a  part  of  the  domestic  life  of  the 
nation,  were  of  course  continued  when  the  first  settlers  built  their 
houses  inland ;  and,  without  a  regular  system  of  drainage,  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  villages  is  such  that  any  other  system  would  bo  very- 
inconvenient." —  ("The  Malay  Archipelago,"  Alfred  Russell  Wallace, 
London,  1869,  vol.  i.  p.  126.) 

Forster  speaks  of  "  an  intolerable  stench  which  arises  from  the  many 
tanks  dispersed  in  the  different  quarters  of  the  town,  whose  waters  and 
borders  are  appropriated  to  the  common  use  of  the  inhabitants " 
("Sketch  of  the  Mythology  of  the  Hindoos,"  George  Forster,  London, 
1785,  p.  7)  ;  but,  he  adds,  "The  filth  alone  which  is  indiscriminately 
thrown  into  the  street." 

"There  are  some  Guai,  which  .  .  .  dawbe  oner  their  houses  with  Oxe- 
dung.  .  .  .  They  touch  not  their  meat  with  the  left  hand,  but  use  that 
hand  only  to  wipe  and  other  unclean  offices." —  (Marco  Polo,  in  Pur- 
chas,  vol.  i.  p.  105.) 

"  Having  list  at  any  time  to  ease  themselves,  the  filthy  lousels  had 
not  the  manners  to  withdraw  themselves  further  from  us  than  a  Beane 
can  be  cast.  Yea,  like  vile  slouens,  they  would  lay  their  tails  in  our 
presence,  while  they  were  yet  talking  with  us."  —  (Friar  William  de 


LATRINES.  145 

Rubruquis,  the  Franciscan,  sent  by  Saint  Louis,  of  France  (King  Louis 
IX.),  as  ambassador  to  the  Grand  Khan  of  Tartary  in  a.d.  1235, — 
in  Purchas,  vol.  i.  p.  11.) 

"  A  great  magnifico  of  Venice,  being  ambassador  in  France,  and 
hearing  a  noble  person  was  come  to  speak  with  him,  made  him  stay  till 
he  had  untied  his  points  ;  and  when  he  was  new  set  upon  his  stool, 
sent  for  the  nobleman  to  come  to  him  at  that  time,  as  a  very  special 
favor."  —  (Harington,  "Ajax,"  p.  30.) 

"  The  French  courtesy  I  spake  of  before  came  from  the  Eomans  ; 
since  in  Martial's  time,  they  shunned  not  one  another's  company  at 
Monsieur  Ajax."  ("Ajax"  as  used  by  Harington,  is  a  play  upon  the 
words  "a  Jakes.")  —  (See  Harington,  "Ajax,"  p.  38.) 

Carl  Lumholtz  stated  to  the  author  that  the  Australians  urinate  in 
the  presence  of  strangers,  and  while  talking  to  them. 

"  II  n'est  fonction  physiologique  ou  besoin  naturel  qu'ils  aient  gene  k 
satisfaire  en  public.  '  Une  coutume  n'a  rien  d'indccent  quand  elle  est 
universelle,'  remarque  philosophiquement  un  de  nos  voyageurs.  —  ("  Les 
Primitifs,"  Elie  Reclus,  Paris,  1885,  p.  71,  —  "  Les  Inoits  Occidentaux," 
quoting  Dall.) 

Padre  Gum  ilia  says  that  the  Indians  on  the  Orinoco  have  the  same 
custom  as  the  Jews  and  Turks  have  of  digging  holes  with  a  hoe  and 
covering  up  their  evacuations.  (See  "Orinoco,"  Madrid,  1741,  p.  109.) 
No  such  cleanliness  can  be  attributed  to  the  Indians  of  the  Plains  of 
North  America  or  the  nomadic  tribes  of  the  Southwest. 

"And  thou  shalt  have  a  paddle  upon  thy  weapon ;  and  it  shall  be, 
when  thou  wilt  ease  thyself  abroad,  thou  shalt  dig  therewith,  and  shalt 
turn  back  and  cover  that  which  cometh  from  thee. 

"For  the  Lord,  thy  God,  walketh  in  the  midst  of  thy  camp,  to  de- 
liver thee  and  to  give  up  thine  enemies  before  thee ;  therefore  shall 
thy  camp  be  holy ;  that  he  see  no  unclean  thing  in  thee,  and  turn 
away  from  thee."  —  (Deuteronomy  xxiii.) 

Speaking  of  the  Essenes,  Josephus  informs  us  :  "  On  the  seventh 
day  .  .  .  they  will  not  even  remove  any  vessel  out  of  its  place,  nor  per- 
form the  most  pressing  necessities  of  nature.  Nay,  on  other  days  they 
dig  a  small  pit,  a  foot  deep,  with  a  paddle  (which  kind  of  hatchet  is 
given  them  when  they  first  are  admitted  among  them),  and,  covering 
themselves  round  with  their  garment,  that  they  may  not  affront  the 
divine  rays  of  light,  they  ease  themselves  into  that  pit.  After  which 
they  put  the  earth  that  was  dug  out  again  into  that  pit. 

"  And  even  this  they  do  only  in  the  most  lonesome  places,  which  they 

10 


146  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

choose  for  this  purpose.  And  it  is  a  rule  with  them  to  wash  them- 
selves afterwards,  as  if  it  were  a  defilement."  —  ("  Wars  of  the  Jews," 
edition  of  New  York,  1821,  p.  241.) 

"  The  Rabbinical  Jews  believed  that  every  privy  was  the  abode  of  an 
unclean  spirit  of  this  kind"  (i.  e.,  an  excrement-eating  god),  "  which 
could  be  inhaled  with  the  breath,  and  descending  into  the  lower  parts 
of  the  body,  lodge  there,  and  thus  like  the  Bhutas  of  India,  bring 
suffering  and  disease."  (Personal  letter  from  John  Frazer,  Esq.,  LL.D., 
Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  Dec.  24,  1889.) 

In  descriptions  of  Jerusalem,  we  read  of  the  "Dung  Gate,"  by  or 
through  which,  all  the  fecal  matter  of  the  city  had  to  be  carried.  — 
(See  Harington,  "  Ajax,"  p.  87.) 

"When  an  aborigine  obeys  a  call  of  nature,  he  always  carries  a 
pointed  instrument  with  which  to  turn  up  the  ground,  so  that  his 
fecal  excreta  may  be  hidden  from  the  keen  vision  of  the  vagabond 
Bangals."  ("Bangals"  are  the  native  witches  or  their  parallels)  — 
("Aborigines  of  Victoria  and  Riverina,"  A.  Brough-Smith,  vol.  i. 
p.  165.) 

The  same  custom  has  been  ascribed  to  the  Dyaks  of  Borneo.  It  is 
by  no  means  certain  that  this  custom  had  its  origin  in  any  suggestion 
of  cleanliness ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  fully  as  probable  that  the  idea 
was  to  avert  the  maleficence  of  witchcraft  by  putting  out  of  sight 
material  the  possession  of  which  would  give  witches  so  much  power 
over  the  former  owner. 

Mr.  John  F.  Mann  confirms  from  personal  observation  that  the  natives 
of  Australia  observed  the  injunction  given  to  the  Hebrews  in  Deuter- 
onomy. "From  personal  observation,  I  can  state  that  the  natives,  all 
over  the  country,  as  a  rule,  are  particular  in  this  matter,  but  it  was 
many  years  before  I  ascertained  the  reasons  for  this  care.  Sorcery 
and  witchcraft  exist  in  every  tribe  ;  each  tribe  has  its  'Kooradgee  '  or 
medicine-man  ;  the  natives  imagine  that  any  death,  accident,  or  pain,  is 
caused  by  the  evil  influence  of  some  enemy.  These  '  Kooradgees  '  have 
the  power  not  only  of  inflicting  pain,  but  of  causing  all  kinds  of  trouble. 
They  are  particular  to  always  carry  about  with  them,  in  a  net  bag,  a 
'charm'  which  is  most  ordinarily  made  of  rock  crj'stal,  human  excre- 
ment, and  kidney  fat.  If  one  of  these  medicine-men  can  obtain  pos- 
session of  some  of  the  excrement  of  his  intended  victim,  or  some  of  his 
hair,  in  fact  anything  belonging  to  his  person,  it  is  the  most  easy  thing 
in  the  world  to  bewitch  him."  —  (Personal  letter  from  John  F.  Mann, 
Esq.,  Neutral  Bay,  New  South  Wales.) 


LATRINES.  147 

"  The  disposal  of  excreta  is  not  so  much  for  the  sake  of  cleanliness 
as  to  prevent  any  human  substance  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  an 
enemy,"  —  (Idem.) 

Schurig  devotes  a  long  paragraph  to  an  exposition  of  the  views 
entertained  by  learned  physicians  in  regard  to  the  effects  to  be  ex- 
pected from  the  deposition  of  the  fecal  matter  upon  plants  that  were 
either  noxious  or  beneficial  to  the  human  organism  ;  in  the  former  case, 
the  worst  results  were  to  be  dreaded  from  sympathy ;  in  the  latter, 
only  the  most  salutary.  Rustics,  in  his  opinion,  enjoyed  better  health 
than  the  inhabitants  of  cities  for  the  very  peculiar  reason  that  the 
latter  evacuated  in  latrines  and  in  the  act  were  compelled  to  inhale  the 
deleterious  gases  emanating  from  the  foul  deposits  already  accumulated  ; 
whereas  the  countryman  could  go  out  to  a  comfortable  place  in  the 
fields  and  evacuate  without  the  danger  and  inconvenience  to  which  the 
urban  population  were  subject. 

But  he  takes  occasion  to  warn  his  readers  that  they  must  be  care- 
ful not  to  defecate  upon  certain  malignant  herbs  which  might  be  the 
cause  of  virulent  dysentery.  ''Prseterea  cavendum  est  ne  feces  supra 
herbas  raalignas  exulcerantes  sive  violenter  purgantes  deponamus  hinc 
enim  causa  latente  dysanteria  periculosa  inducitur  quae  vix  nisi  herbis 
prorsus  putrefactis  ullis  medicamentis  cedit."  —  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  792, 
paragraph  66.) 

Colonel  Garrick  Mallery,  United  States  Army,  reports  having  met 
with  people  of  respectability  and  intelligence  in  the  mountainous  parts 
of  Virginia  who  hold  the  same  views  upon  the  subject  of  latrines. 

"  Ye  great  ones,  why  will  ye  disdain 
To  pay  your  tribute  on  the  plain  ? 
Why  will  you  place  in  lazy  pride  ? 
When  from  the  homeliest  earthenware 
Are  sent  up  offerings  more  sincere 
Than  where  the  haughty  Duchess  locks 
Her  silver  vase  in  cedar  box." 

(Dean  Swift.) 

"  Si  une  bhikshuni  jette  des  excrements  sur  I'herbe  croissante,  c'est 
un  pacittiya,  etc."  —  ("  Pratimoksha  Sutra,"  translated  by  W.  W, 
Rockhill,  Paris,  1884.  Soc.  Asiatique.)  These  bhikshuni  are  the 
nuns  of  Thibet,  and  the  word  "  pacittiya  "  means  a  sin. 

The  following  beastly  practices  are  related  of  the  Capuchins  :  "Tu- 
nica replicata,  absque  impedimento  cacat  et  mingit,  anum  fune  abster- 


148  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

git."  —  (Fosbroke,  "British  Monachisra,"  quoting  "Specimen  Mon- 
chologia3.") 

There  are  no  latrines  of  any  kind  in  Angola,  West  Africa ;  the  ne- 
groes believe  that  it  is  very  vile  to  frequent  the  same  place  for  such 
I)urposes.  They  do  not  cover  up  their  excrements,  but  deposit  them 
out  in  the  bushes.  Sometimes  it  happens  that  a  man  will  defecate 
inside  the  house,  in  which  case  he  will  be  laughed  at  all  the  rest  of  his 
life,  and  be  called  "  D'Kombe,"  which  is  a  kind  of  leopard.  —  ("  Mu- 
hongo,"  an  African  boy,  translation  by  Rev.  Mr.  Chatelain.) 

The  following  is  the  epigram  of  Martial  "ad  Furium"  ;  — 

"  A  te  sudor  abest,  abest  saliva, 
Mucusque  et  pituita  mala  nasi, 
Hunc  ad  munditiem  adde  muiuliorem. 
Quod  cuius  tibi  purior  salillo  est, 
Nee  toto  decies  cacas  in  anno  ; 
Atque  id  durius  est  faba  et  lapillis. 
Quod  tu  si  manibus  teras  fricesque, 
Nou  unquam  digitum  inquiuare  possis." 

The  Hon.  John  F.  Finerty  called  public  attention  to  the  fact  that 
in  the  city  of  Mexico,  ten  years  ago,  beggars  of  the  vilest  caste  in- 
variably made  a  practice  of  defecating  upon  the  marble  steps  of  the 
main  entrance  to  the  grand  cathedral. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Porter  states  that  in  some  parts  of  the  Mexican  republic 
the  women  come  out  in  front  of  their  doors  to  urinate ;  the  author  has 
seen  them  doing  this,  and  also  defecating  in  the  streets  of  Tucson,  at 
that  time  the  capital  of  Arizona ;  he  has  seen  the  same  practice  in 
several  of  the  smaller  hamlets  of  that  territory  and  Sonora  and  Ne^7 
Mexico,  but  always  at  night. 

The  Mexicans  living  on  our  side  of  the  border  never  constructed 
privies  for  their  dwellings,  a  custom  perhaps  derived  from  Spain,  where 
we  have  seen  that  even  in  Madrid  the  construction  of  such  conveniences 
was  unknown  until  after  the  middle  of  the  last  century. 

POSTURE    IN    URINATION. 

The  Apache  men  in  micturating  always  squat  down,  while  the  women, 
on  the  contrary,  always  stand  up.  Giraldus  Cambreusis  says  of  the  Irish  : 
"  Prseterea,  viri  in  hac  gente  sedendo,  mulieres  stando,  urinas  emittunt." 
—  ("Opera,"  edited  by  James  Dimock,  and  published  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  London,  1867,  vol.  v.  p.  172.) 

The  author  has  seen  an  Italian  woman  of  the  lower  class  urinating 


LATRINES.  149 

in  this  manner  in  the  street  near  San  Pietro  in  Vinculis,  Rome,  in  open 
daylight,  iu  1883. 

French  women  were  to  be  seen  in  the  streets  of  Paris  urinating  while 
standing  over  gutters.  —  (Mr.  W.  W.  Rockhill.) 

"  Among  the  Turks,  it  is  an  heresy,  to  p — s  standing,"  —  (Harington, 
"Ajax,"  iu  the  chapter  "Ulysses  upon  Ajax,"  p.  43.) 

The  Egyptian  "  women  stand  up  when  they  make  water,  but  the  men 
sit  dowH."  —  (Herodotus,  "  Euterpe,"  p.  35.) 

Air.  Carl  Lumholtz  (author  of  *'  Among  Cannibals,"  New  York,  1889) 
also  stated  that  the  Australian  men  squatted  while  urinating;  the 
women  generally  stood  erect,  but  upon  this  point  he  was  not  quite 
sure. 

"  Mantegazza,  in  his  *  Gli  amori  degli  uoraini,'  describing  the  opera- 
tion of  splitting  the  male  urethra,  practised  among  Australian  tribes, 
remarks:  *To  urinate,  they  squat  down  like  our  women,  lifting  the 
penis  slightly.  It  appears  that,  on  the  contrary,  Australian  women 
urinate  standing.*  (He  is  apparently  quoting  from  Michluchs-Maclay.) 
Among  the  Kaffirs,  etc.,  at  the  Cape,  the  usual  practice,  I  understand, 
does  not  differ  from  ours." —  (Personal  letter  from  Havelock  Ellis,  Esq., 
editor  of  the  Contemporary  Science  series,  dated  Red  Hill,  Surrey,  Oct.  8, 
1889.  From  this  gentleman  there  was  also  received  much  matter  of  a 
most  valuable  character,  from  the  early  English  dramatists,  travellers, 
and  others,  which  has  been  already  quoted  from  these  sources  direct.) 

"  Behold  the  strutting  Amazonian  whore  ! 
She  stands  in  guard,  with  her  right  foot  before  : 
Her  coat  tucked  up,  and  all  her  motions  just, 
She  stamps,  and  then  cries,  '  Hah  ! '  at  every  thrust. 
But  laugh  to  see  her,  tired  from  many  a  bout, 
Call  for  the  pot,  and  like  a  man  piss  out." 

(Juvenal,  Satire  VI.,  Dryden's  translation.) 

The  Thibetan  nuns  are  forbidden  to  adopt  certain  postures,  as  are 
the  monks. 

"  110,  111.  Ne  pas  se  soulager  debout,  n'etant  pas  malade,  est  une 
regie  qu'on  doit  apprendre."  —  ("  Pratimoksha  Sutra,"  translated  by 
W.  W.  Rockhill,  Paris,  1884,  Soc.  Asiatique.) 

"  wiEsop,  that  great  man,  saw  his  master  make  water  as  he  walked. 
'  What ! '  said  he  ;  *  must  we,  then,  dung  as  we  walk  V  "  —  (Planudus, 
quoted  by  Montaigne,  "  Essays,"  Hazlitt's  translation,  New  York,  1859, 
vol.  iii.  p.  467.) 

The  lazzaroni  of  Naples  are  more  filthy  in  all  these  respects  than  the 


150  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

wildest  Maori,  Bedouin,  or  Apache  Indian,  as  the  author  can  assert 
from  disagreeable  personal  observation. 

"It  can  be  justly  said  that  the  inhabitants  of  Cadiack,  if  we  except 
the  women  during  their  monthly  periods  and  their  lying-in,  have  not 
the  least  sense  of  cleanliness.  They  will  not  go  a  step  out  of  the  way 
for  the  most  necessary  purposes  of  nature  ;  and  vessels  are  placed  at 
their  very  doors  for  the  reception  of  the  urinous  fluid,  which  are  re- 
sorted to  alike  by  both  sexes."  —  (Lisiansky,  "  Voyages,"  p.  214,  quoted 
also  in  Bancroft's  "Native  Eaces  of  the  Pacific  Slope,"  vol.  i.  p.  81.) 

"  Par  suite  des  ordures  et  du  manque  d'air,  I'interieur  des  huttea 
repand  une  puanteur  presque  insupportable."  —  ("  Les  Primitifs/'  Elie 
Keclus,  Paris,  1885,  "  Les  Inoits  Orientaux.") 

Old  women  in  Switzerland  urinate  standing,  especially  in  cold 
weather.  —  (Rev.  Mr.  Chatelain,  himself  a  native  of  Switzerland,  and 
now  a  Protestant  missionary  in  Angola,  Western  Africa.) 

The  men  of  Angola,  Africa,  urinate  standing ;  the  women  of  the 
same  tribes  urinate  standing,  as  a  general  thing,  although  there  are 
some  exceptions.  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  Jesuits  have  had 
missions  in  that  region  for  two  hundred  years,  and  some  effect  upon 
the  ideas  of  the  people,  due  to  these  ministrations  as  well  as  to  the 
occupancy  of  the  country  by  the  Portuguese,  should  be  perceptible. 

Gomara  says  of  the  Indians  of  Nicaragua  :  "  Mean  todos  do  les  toma 
la  gana  —  ellos  en  cuclillas  y  ellas  en  pie."  —  ("  Historia  de  las  Indias," 
p.  283.) 

The  Mojaves  of  the  Rio  Colorado  follow  the  same  rule  as  the 
Apaches. 

In  Ounalashka,  the  houses  are  divided  by  partitions.  "  Each  parti- 
tion has  a  particular  wooden  reservoir  for  the  urine,  which  is  used 
both  for  dyeing  the  grass  and  for  washing  the  hands,  but  after  cleans- 
ing the  latter  in  this  manner,  they  rince  them  in  pure  water."  — 
(Sarytschew,  in  ''Phillip's  Voyages,"  London,  1807,  vol.  vi.  p.  72.) 

Dr.  Porter  communicates  the  information  that  he  has  often  heard 
the  Arctic  explorer  Dr.  Hayes  speak  of  the  propensity  of  the  Eskimo 
of  the  east  coast  of  Greenland  to  use  the  trench  to  the  hut  as  a  latrine. 
He  tried  in  vain  to  prevent  this  practice  among  his  Eskimo  attendants, 
but  believed  that  they  had  a  pride  among  themselves  in  leaving  con- 
spicuous traces  of  their  presence. 

For  urinals  among  the  Eskimo,  see  also  notes  from  Egede,  Egede 
Saabye,  and  Richardson,  under  "  Industries,"  in  this  volume. 

"  Neither  is  it  lawfull  for  any  one  to  rise  from  the  table  to  make 


LATRINES.  1 51 

water  ;  but  for  this  purpose  tlie  daughter  of  the  house,  or  another  maid 
or  woman,  attendeth  always  at  the  table,  watchfull  if  any  one  beckon 
to  them ;  to  him  that  beckoneth  shee  gives  the  chamber-pott  under 
the  table  with  her  owne  hands  ;  the  rest  in  the  meanwhile  grunt  like 
swine  least  any  noise  bee  heai'd.  The  water  being  poured  out,  hee 
washeth  the  bason,  and  offereth  his  services  to  him  that  is  willing  ; 
and  he  is  accounteth  uncivill  who  abhorreth  this  fashion."  —  (Dittmar 
Bleecken's  "  Voyage  to  Iceland  and  Greenland,"  a.  d.  15Go,  in  Purchas, 
vol.  i.  pp.  63G-647.) 

Steller's  account  shows  that  in  his  time  the  people  of  Kamtchatka 
had  no  regular  water-closets. 

"  The  dogs  steal  food  whenever  they  can,  and  even  eat  their  straps. 
In  their  pi-esence  no  one  is  able  to  ease  nature  without  the  protection 
of  a  club  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  them  at  a  distance.  As  soon  as 
he  leaves,  the  dogs  rush  to  the  spot,  and  under  much  snarling  and 
snapping  each  seeks  to  grasp  the  deposit."  —  (Steller,  translated  by 
Bunnemeyer.) 

In  the  Eskimo  myths  there  is  the  story  of  the  Eskimo  boy,  an  or- 
jjhan,  who  was  abused  by  being  made  to  carry  out  of  the  hut  the  large 
urine  vessel.  This  would  indicate  a  certain  antiquity  for  the  employ- 
ment of  these  vessels.  —  (See  "  The  Central  Eskimo,"  Franz  Boas,  iu 
"  Sixth  Annual  Eeport,"  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washington,  D.  C, 
1888,  p.  631.) 

In  the  city  of  Bogota,  Colombia,  South  America,  the  lower  classes 
urinate  openly  in  the  streets ;  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  the  same  practice 
prevailed  until  recently. 

In  "The  Snake  Dance  of  the  Moquis  of  Arizona,"  the  author  had 
something  to  say  touching  the  practice  of  the  Moquis,  Zuiiis,  and 
others  of  the  Pueblo  tribes,  of  collecting  urine  in  vessels  of  earthenware  ; 
this  was  for  the  purpose  of  saving  the  fluid  for  use  in  dyeing  the  wool 
of  which  their  blankets  and  other  garments  were  to  be  made.  It  was 
noticed,  however,  that  a  particular  place  was  assigned  for  such  emer- 
gencies as  might  arise  when  the  ordinary  receptacles  might  not  be 
within  reach.  Thus,  in  the  town  of  Hualpi  (on  the  eastern  mesa  in 
the  northeast  corner  of  the  Territory  of  Arizona),  one  of  the  corners 
had  been  in  such  constant  use,  and  for  so  long  a  time  that  the  stream 
percolating  down  from  the  wall  had  eroded  a  channel  for  itself  in  the 
friable  sandstone  flooring,  which  would  serve  to  demonstrate  that  the 
place  had  been  so  dedicated  for  a  very  extended  number  of  years. 

Latrines  of  some  sort  would  seem  to  have  been  in  use  among  the 


152  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

natives  of  Australia,  if  we  are  to  interpred  literally  the  expression  em- 
ployed by  A.  Brough  Smyth,  which  see  under  "  Myths  "  in  this  volume. 
The  Tonga  Islanders,  in  the  mortuary  ceremonies  of  their  great  chiefs, 
are  stated  to  have  had  thera  (see  under  "  Mortuary  Ceremonies  "  in 
this  volume). 

Carl  Lumholtz  did  not  observe  latrines  of  any  kind  among  such  of 
the  Australians  as  he  visited. 

Among  the  Chinese  "  it  is  usual  for  the  princes,  and  even  the  people, 
to  make  water  standing.  Persons  of  dignity,  as  well  as  the  vice-kings, 
and  the  principal  officers,  have  gilded  canes,  a  cubit  long,  which  are 
bored  through,  and  these  they  use  as  often  as  they  make  water,  stand- 
ing upright  all  the  time  ;  and  by  this  means  the  tube  carries  the  water 
to  a  good  distance  from  them.^  They  are  of  opinion  that  all  pains  in 
the  kidneys,  the  strangury,  and  even  the  stone,  are  caused  by  making 
water  in  a  sitting  posture  ;  and  that  the  reins  cannot  free  themselves 
absolutely  of  these  humors  but  by  standing  to  evacuate ;  and  that  thus 
this  posture  contributes  exceedingly  to  the  i:)reservation  of  health."  — 
("The  Travels  of  Two  Mahometans  through  India  and  China,"  in 
Pinkerton,  vol.  vii.  p.  215.) 

The  Persian  "  must  not  pray  before  an  overhanging  wall,  or  in  a 
room  where  there  is  a  pot  de  chambre." —  (Benjamin,  ''  Persia,"  Lon- 
don, 1887,  p.  444,  quoting  from  the  Shahr.) 

In  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  if  a  man's  shadow  fall  on  a  chief,  the  man 
is  put  to  death.  —  (See  "  The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  190.) 

"  These  natives  (East  Siberia)  always  preserve  for  use  in  their  do- 
mesticity the  urine  of  the  whole  f^xmily ;  it  is  preserved  in  a  large  tub 
or  half-barrel,  procured  from  the  whale-ships  or  found  in  the  drift  that 
comes  upon  their  shores.  They  use  the  warm  water  from  their  bodies 
for  cleansing  their  bodies  ;  the  rim  that  gathers  round  the  high-water 
mark  of  their  cess-pool  is  used  for  smearing  their  bodies  to  kill  the 
vermin.  .  .  .  The  habits  of  these  people  are  beastly  in  the  extreme. 
.  .  .  They  seemed  to  have  no  aversion  whatever  to  close  contact  with 
the  feces  of  men  or  animals."  —  (Personal  letter  of  Chief  Engineer 
Melville,  U.  S.  Navy,  to  Captain  Bourke.) 

Van  Stralenberg  says  of  the  "Koraiiki"  (Koraks)  :  "For  their  nec- 
essary occasions  they  make  use  of  a  tub,  which  they  have  with  them 
in  the  hut,  and  when  full  they  carry  it  out,  and  make  use  of  the  same 

^  This  recalls  the  repugnance  of  the  Mahometans  to  the  spray  of  urine  touching 
their  persons  or  clothing,  as  already  indicated. 


LATRINES.  153 

tub  to  bring  in  water  for  other  occasions."  —  (  "Ilistori-Geographical 
Description  of  the  North  and  East  Parts  of  Europe  and  Asia,"  p.  397.) 

By  referring  to  page  390  of  this  volume,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
Lapps,  upon  breaking  camp,  made  it  a  point  to  burn  the  dung  of  their 
reindeer  in  cases  where  any  of  those  animals  had  died  of  disease ;  while 
it  is  also  related  that  immigrants  to  California  from  the  States  of  Mis- 
souri and  Arkansas,  for  some  reason  not  understood,  had  the  singular 
custom  of  burning  their  own  excrement  in  the  camp-fire. 

"When  they  ease  themselves,  they  commonly  go  in  the  morning  unto 
the  Towne's  end,  where  there  is  a  place  purposely  made  for  them,  that 
they  may  not  bee  seene,  so  also  because  men  passing  by  should  not  bo 
molested  with  the  smell  thereof.  They  also  esteeme  it  a  bad  thing  that 
men  should  ease  themselves  upon  the  ground,  and  therefore  they  make 
houses  which  are  borne  up  above  the  ground,  wherein  they  ease  them- 
selves upon  the  ground,  and  every  time  they  do  it  they  wipe ;  or  else 
they  goe  to  the  water's  side  to  ease  themselves  in  the  sand  ;  and  when 
the  Priuie  houses  are  full,  they  set  fire  to  them,  and  let  them  burn  to 
ashes  ;  they  pisse  by  jobs  as  dogs  doe,  and  not  all  at  one  time."  — 
(Master  Richard  Jobson,  a. d.  1620,  "Gold  Coast  of  Africa,"  in  Pur- 
chas,  vol.  ii.  p.  932.) 


154  SCATALOGIG   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XXI. 

AN   INQUIRY   INTO    THE   NATURE   OF    THE  RITES    CON- 
NECTED  WITH  THE  WORSHIP   OF  BEL-PHEGOR. 

"PRECISELY  what  ceremonial  observances  the  ritual  of  Bel-Phegor 
"^  demanded  of  the  suppUant  at  his  shrine  is  not  hkely  ever  to  be 
known.  It  would  be  worse  than  useless  to  attempt  in  a  treatise  of  this 
kind  to  affirm  or  deny  the  existence  of  the  obscene  usages  alleged  to 
have  formed  part  of  his  worship  ;  sufficient,  at  this  moment,  to  lay  be- 
fore reflecting  minds  testimony  on  both  sides  of  the  question,  with 
reasons  for  the  belief  that  flatulence  could  be  presented  as  an  ob- 
lation, with  examples  of  quaint  customs  which  may  partake  of  the 
nature  of  "survivals  "  from  religious  ceremonies  of  a  nature  not  far 
removed  from  those  supposed  to  have  been  associated  with  the  rites  of 
Bel-Phegor. 

Well  has  an  old  author  remarked  :  "  Men  have  lost  their  reason  in 
nothing  so  much  as  their  religion,  wherein  stones  and  clouts  make 
martyrs ;  and  since  the  religion  of  one  seems  madness  to  another,  to 
afford  an  account  or  rational  of  old  rites  requires  no  rigid  reader."  — 
(Sir  Thomas  Browne,  "Religio  Medici,"  edition  of  Boston,  1868,  p.  329, 
article  "Urn-Burial.") 

*'  Le  Pet  etait  une  divinite  des  anciens  Egyptiens  ;  elle  etait  la  per- 
sonification d'une  fonction  naturelle.  On  la  figurait  par  un  enfant  ac- 
croupi  qui  semble  faire  effort,  et  on  peut  en  voir  la  representation  dans 
les  ouvrages  d'antiquite.  Le  poeme  Calotin,  intitule  le  Conseil  de 
Momus  (voyez  aux  Polygraphes)  doune,  centre  la  pnge  19,  deux  figures 
de  ce  dieu.  L'une  etait  en  cornaliue  de  trois  couleurs ;  I'autre  en  terre 
cuite,  se  trouvait  dans  le  cabinet  du  Marquis  de  Cospy,  et  la  figure  en 
a  ^te  donnee  dans  le  Museum  Cospianum.  L'auteur  de  la  Dissertation 
sur  nn  ancien  Usage  (voyez  le  numcro  18)  conteste  que  ces  figurines 
se  rapportant  au  Crepitus,  et  croit  qu'elles  ont  ete  inventdes  dans  un 
but  plus  solide. 


THE  WORSHIP   OF   BEL-PHEGOR.  155 

"  C'est  de  Minutius  Felix  que  nous  vient  la  reconnaissance  du  Crepitus, 
qui,  lors  meme  qu'il  aurait  ete  celebre  reelleraeut  en  Egypte,  n'etait 
peut-etre  qu'uue  caricature  imaginee  par  les  plaisants  du  jour.  Menage 
cependant  afl&rme  que  les  Pelusiens  adoraient  le  Pet ;  il  dit  que  Baude- 
lot  en  a  donne  la  preuve  dans  les  editions  de  son  premier  vol.,  et  qu'il 
en  possedait  una  figure.  (Voy.  Menagiana,  1693,  no.  397.  St.  Jerome 
dit  la  meme  chose  sur  Isaie,  xiii.  46.  Voy.  encore  Klotz,  act.  litter,  t. 
v.,  premiere  partie,  1,  Elmenhorst  sur  TOctavius  de  Minutius  Felix; 
Mythol.  de  Banier,  t.  1;  Montfaucon,  TAntiquite  expliquee,'  t.  iii. 
part  2,  p.  336.) 

"  Quelques  antiquaires  ont  cru  pouvoir  identifier  le  dieu  Crepitus  des 
Romains  avec  Bel-Phegor,  Baal-Phegor  ou  Baal-Peor,  dieu  Syrien,  — 
Phegor,  assure-t-on,  ayant  ce  sens  en  Hebreu.  (Origeu  contra  Celsus ; 
Minutius  Felix.)  Mais,  sur  cette  derniere  divinite  les  savants  sout  fort 
peu  d'accord. 

"Origene,  St.  Jerome,  Salomon  Ben  Jarchi,  lui  donnent  une  significa- 
tion qui  la  rendrait  tout  a  fait  iudigue  de  figurer  dans  notre  catalogue ; 
mais  Maimonide  (Moge  Nevoch,  cap.  46)  et  Salom.  Ben  Jarchi  (Com- 
ment. 3,  sur  Nomb.  ch.  25)  pretendent  que  son  culte  etait  plus  sale  que 
obscene,  et  les  traducteurs  de  ces  rabbins  pour  exprimer  le  principal  de- 
tail des  ceremonies  ce'lebrees  en  I'honneur  du  dieu  de  Syrie,  disent ; 
'Distendere  coram  eo  foramen  podicis  et  stercus  offerre.' 

"  Ajoutez  que  les  pets  etaient  de  bon  augure  chez  les  Grecs,  de  mau- 
yais  augure  chez  les  Eomains.  —  (Voy.  Scaliger,  Auson.) 

"  No  one  now  supposes  that  the  Rabbins  had  anything  but  their 
imaginations  to  go  on  in  what  they  say  about  Baal-Peor  ;  they  invented 
the  story  as  a  fanciful  etymology  of  the  name."  ^ — (Personal  letter 
from  Prof  W.  Robertson  Smith  to  Captain  Bourke.) 

*  Bel-Peor.  "  Very  little  is  really  known  of  the  nature  of  his  worship,  but  it 
is  an  almost  universal  opinion,  which  appears  to  be  sustained  by  Numbers  xxv., 
that  it  was  licentious  in  its  character.  Human  sacrifice  appears  to  have  been 
offered  to  him  ;  and  it  is  conjectured,  from  Psalms  cvi.  28,  that  the  worshippers  ate 
of  the  victims  that  had  been  offered  to  him."  —  ("  Dictionary  of  Religious  Knowl- 
edge," Abbott  and  Conant,  New  York,  1875,  article  "Baal  and  Baal-Peor.") 

'*  In  a  story  of  Armagnac,  Joan  lou  Pec  runs  after  a  man  whom  he  believes 
to  be  a  sage,  and  asks  him  when  he  will  die.  The  man  answers  :  '  Joan  lou  Pec 
mauriras  au  troisieme  pet  de  toun  ase,'  —  The  ass  breaks  wind  twice,  and  the  fool 
endeavors  to  prevent  the  third  flatus.  •  Cop  sec  s'en  angone  cerca  un  pan  (stake) 
bien  pounchut  et  I'enfouncee  das  un  martet  dans  lou  cou  de  I'ase.  Mes  I'ase  s'en- 
flee  tant,  e  hascouc  tant  gran  effort  que  lou  pau  sourtisconc  commo  no  balo  e  tuec 
lou  praube  Joan   lou  Pec.'"  —  ("  Contes  et  Proverbes  Populaires,"  recueillis  eu 


156  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

Citations  have  already  been  made  from  the  Bibliotheca  Scatologica, 
a  curious  collectioa  of  learning,  no  name  and  no  place  of  publication  of 
which  can  be  found,  but  which  seems  to  have  been  printed  by  Giraudet 
et  Jouaust,  315  Rue  Saint  Honore,  Paris,  granting  that  this  title  be  not 
fictitious.  lu  that  work  are  to  be  seen  the  titles  of  no  less  than  one 
hundred  and  thirty-three  treatises  upon  Flatulence,  some  grotesque, 
some  coarse,  one  or  two  of  quaint  erudition. 

No.  88,  entitled  "  Eloge  du  Pet,  dissertation  historique,  anatomique 
et  philosophique  sur  son  origiue,  son  antiquite,  ses  vertus,  sa  figure, 
les  houueurs  qu'on  lui  a  rcndus  chez  les  peuplcs  auciens,  etc. ;  avec 
une  figure  representant  le  dieu  Pet,  et  cette  inscription :  Crcpitui  vcn- 
tris  conservatori  deo  propitio  (p.  38),"  the  stupendous  work  of  Sclop- 
etarius,  No.  Ill,  of  the  Dibliotheca  (Frankfort,  1G28)  seems  to  have 
been  a  monumental  labor  upon  a  subject  not  generally  dissected. 
The  same  remark  maybe  applied  to  "  Physiologia  crepitus  ventris" 
of  Rod.  Goclenius,  Frankfort  and  Leipsic,  1607,  No.  123  of  the 
Bibliotheca. 

The  earliest  known  work  upon  this  curious  topic  is  "  Le  plaisant 
deuis  du  Pet,"  Paris,  1540. 

"  Origen  saith  the  name  Baal-Peor  significth  filtliiness,  but  what 
filthiness  he  knew  not ;  Salomon  Ben  Jarchi  writeth  they  offered  to 
him  ordure,  placing  before  his  mouth  the  likeness  of  that  place  which 
Nature  hath  made  for  egestion."  —  (Purchas,  vol.  v.  p.  85.) 

A  reference  to  the  work  of  Bel-Phegor  is  to  be  found  in  the  fol- 
lowing couplet  from  a  book  entitled  "  Conseil  de  Momus  : "  — 

"  La  deuxieme  moitie  du  premier  chant  est  consacrce 

'A  certains  vents  coulis 
Jadis  adores  a  Meujphis.'  "      —  (Bib.  Scat.,  p.  7.) 

"The  antient  Pelusi^ns,  a  people  of  lower  Egypt,  did  (amongst 
other  whimsical,  chimerical  objects  of  veneration  and  worship)  venerate 
a  Fart,  which  they  worshipped  under  the  symbol  of  a  swelled  i)aunch." 
—  ("  A  View  of  the  Levant,"  Charles  Perry,  M.  D.,  sm.  fol.,  London, 
1743,  p.  419. 

Armagnac,  par  J.  F.  Blade,  Paris,  quoted  by  Angelo  do  Gubernatis,  "Zocil.  Mytliol.," 
vol.  i.  pp.  397,  398.) 

The  reader  will  please  look  under  the  heading  of  "  Myths  "  in  this  volume,  and 
will  there  see  a  similar  adventure  related  of  the  Eskimo,  or  rather  the  Kamtchatkan, 
god  Eutka. 

"Wherefore  my  bowels  shall  sound  like  a  harp  for  Moab,  and  mine  inward  parts 
for  Kir-haresli."  —  (Isaiah  xvi.  11.) 


THE  WORSHIP   OF  BEL-PHEGOR.  157 

"Time  has  preserved  to  us  a  figure  of  this  ridiculous  Divinity, 
which  represents  a  very  young  cliild  in  the  posture  of  that  indecent 
action  whence  this  god  has  his  name."  —  (Abl)e  Banier,  "  Mythology," 
English  translation,  1740,  vol.  ii.  pp.  52  et  seq.)  ^ 

"Their  Beetle-gods  out  of  their  privies;  yea,  their  Privies  and 
Farts  had  their  unsavorie  canonization  and  went  for  Egyptian  deities. 
.  .  .  So,  Hierome  derideth  their  dreadfuU  deitie,  the  Onion,  and  a 
stinking  Fart,  Crepitus  ventris  inflati  que  Pelusiaco  religio  est,  which 
they  worshipped  at  Pelusium."  —  (Purchas,  vol.  v.  p.  641.) 

It  may  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  heathen  idea  of  the  power 
of  a  god  was  entirely  different  from  our  own.  The  deities  of  the  hea- 
then were  restricted  in  their  powers  and  functions ;  they  were  assigned 
to  the  care  of  certain  countries,  districts,  valleys,  rivers,  fountains,  etc. 
Not  only  that,  they  were  capable  of  aiding  only  certain  trades,  pro- 
fessions, etc.  They  were  not  able  to  cure  all  diseases,  only  particular 
kinds,  each  god  being  a  specialist ;  consequently,  each  was  supposed 
to  take  charge  of  a  section  of  the  human  body.  This  was  the  case 
with  the  Greeks,  Romans,  Egyptians,  and  others.  In  mediaeval  times 
the  same  rule  obtained,  only  in  place  of  gods,  we  find  saints  assigned 
to  these  functions.  Brand,  Pop.  Antiq.  vol.  i.  p.  356,  et  seq.,  gives  a 
list  of  the  saints,  and  the  functions  ascribed  to  each.  On  page  366  of 
the  work  just  cited,  it  will  be  seen  that  Saint  Ei-asmus  was  in  charge 
of  "  the  belly,  with  the  entrayles."  Keeping  this  in  view,  we  can 
better  understand  the  peculiar  ceremonies  connected  with  the  worship 
of  Bel-Phegor;  he  was,  no  doubt,  the  deity  to  whom  the  devotee 
resorted  for  the  alleviation  of  ailments  connected  with  the  rectum  and 
belly,  much  as  he  would,  at  a  later  date  in  the  history  of  religion, 
have  invoked  Saint  Phiacre  to  relieve  him  "of  the  phy  or  emeroids,  of 
those  especially  which  grow  in  the  fundament."  (See  in  Brand,  loc. 
cit.  p.  362.)  On  the  same  principle  that  the  worshipper  was  wont  to 
hang  up  in  the  temples  of  Esculapius  wax  and  earthen  representations 
of  the  sore  arms,  legs,  and  other  members  which  gave  him  pain,  the 

1  "The  Eskimo  call  the  better  being  ' Torngarsuk.'  They  don't  all  agree  about 
liis  form  or  aspect.  Some  say  he  has  no  form  at  all ;  others  describe  him  as  a 
great  bear,  or  as  a  great  man  with  one  arm,  or  as  small  as  a  finger.  He  is  immortal, 
but  might  be  killed  by  the  intervention  of  the  god  Crepitus.  '  —  ("Myth,  Ritual, 
and  Religion,"  Andrew  Lang,  London,  1887,  vol.  ii.  p.  48.)  A  footnote  to  the 
above  adds,  "The  circumstances  in  which  this  is  possible  may  be  sought  for  in 
Crantz,  'History  of  Greenland,'  London,  1767,  vol.  i.  p.  206." 

Crantz  saj's  of  Torngarsuk  :  "He  is  immortal,  and  yet  might  be  killed,  if  any 
one  breaks  wind  in  a  house  where  witchcraft  is  carrying  on."  —  (Crantz,  as  above.) 


158  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

worshipper  of  Bel-Phegor  would  offer  him  the  sacrifice  of  the  flatulence 
and  excreraeut,  testimonies  of  the  good  health  for  which  gratitude  was 
due  to  the  older  deity. 

•'The  Egyptians  divided  the  human  body  into  thirty-six  parts,  each 
of  which  they  believed  to  be  under  the  particular  government  of  one 
of  the  decans  or  aerial  demons  who  presided  over  the  triple  divisions 
of  the  twelve  signs ;  and  we  have  the  authority  of  Origeu  for  saying 
that  when  any  part  of  the  body  was  diseased,  a  cure  was  efFected  by 
invoking  the  demon  to  whose  province  it  belonged."  —  ("Medical 
Superstitions,"  Pettigrew,  Philadelphia,  1844,  p.  47.) 

The  ascription  of  particular  signs  of  the  Zodiac  to  the  care  of 
different  members  of  the  human  anatomy  is  in  line  with  the  same 
religious  idea ;  because  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  especially  the  Animal 
signs,  were  once  Animal  Gods. 

Hone,  in  his  "  Evevy-Day  Book/'  has  a  therapeutical  hagiology,  too 
long  to  be  here  repeated. 

"  Melton  says,  '  The  saints  of  the  Eomanists  have  usurped  the  place 
of  the  Zodiacal  constellations  in  their  governance  of  the  parts  of  man's 
body,*  and  that  'for  every  limb  they  have  a  saint.'  Thus  Saint 
"  Erasmus  rules  the  belly  with  the  entrayles  in  the  place  of  Libra  and 
Scorpius."  —  ("Medical  Superstitions,"  Pettigrew,  Philadelphia,  1844, 
p.  d4.)  Next  follows  a  long  list  of  saints,  with  the  particular  functions 
assigned  to  each,  beginning  first  with  the  list  to  be  found  in  Hone, 
which  Pettigrew  extends.  —  ("  Saint  Giles  and  Saint  Hyacinth  against 
Sterility,"  idem,  pp.  55,  5G.) 

"  In  later  times,  according  to  Herodotus,  a  particular  and  minute 
division  of  labor  characterized  the  Egyptians ;  the  science  of  medicine 
was  distributed  into  different  parts ;  every  physician  was  for  one  dis- 
ease, not  more ;  so  that  every  place  was  full  of  physicians,  for  some 
were  doctors  for  the  eyes,  others  for  the  head ;  some  for  the  teeth, 
others  for  the  belly  ;  and  some  for  occult  disorders.  There  were  also 
physicians  for  female  disorders.  The  sons  followed  the  professions  of 
their  fathers,  so  that  their  numbers  must  necessarily  have  been  very 
great." —  (Idem,  p.  44.) 

As  the  Egyptian  priests  were  the  doctors  of  that  country,  it  is  per- 
fectly in  accord  with  the  eternal  fitness  of  things  that  we  should  find 
them,  even  after  they  had  been  differentiated  into  different  professions, 
restricted  to  the  treatment  of  special  diseases,  much  as  the  gods  whom 
the  priests  once  represented  had  been  restricted.* 

i  Among  the  Chinese  and  Hindus  an  identical  partition  of  responsibility  will  be 
found  ascnbed  to  the  deities.     It  wotild  require  a  special  disquisition  to  enumerate 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  BEL-PHEGOR.  159 

"The  art  of  medicine  is  thus  divided  among  them  (Egyptians). 
Each  physician  applies  himself  to  one  disease  only  and  not  more.     All 

these  gods  and  their  functions,  so  far  as  known  to  us,  but  such  an  enumeration 
would  do  no  good,  because  the  accuracy  of  the  statement  will  be  admitted  without 
dispute. 

A  clipping  from  the  "Times,"  of  India,  copied  in  the  "Sunday  Herald,"  of 
Washington,  D.  C,  June  2,  1889,  bears  upon  this  point : 

"  The  general  public  are  not  aware  of  a  ludicrous  custom  still  followed  in  Hindu 
households  of  Bengal.  The  last  day  of  Falgoon,  that  fell  on  the  12th  ultimo,  was 
observed  in  worshipping  Ghantoo,  the  god  of  itches  and  the  diseases  of  the  skin 
which  afflict  the  natives.  Very  early  in  the  morning  of  the  day  the  mistresses  of 
the  families,  changing  their  nocturnal  attire,  put  a  useless,  black  earthen  vessel 
outside  the  threshold  of  their  back  doors,  with  a  handful  of  rice  and  masoor  dal, 
four  cowries,  with  a  piece  of  rag  smeared  with  turmeric.  Wild  flowers  appearing 
in  this  season  are  offered  in  worship.  (These  flowers  are  called  Ghantoo  fool.)  The 
young  boys  of  the  family  stand  in  a  semicircle  before  the  mistress,  with  cudgels  in 
their  hands.  When  the  conches  are  sounded  by  the  female  worshippers,  as  the  sig- 
nal of  the  poojah  being  over,  the  boys  break  the  vessels  into  atoms.  The  mirthful 
children,  in  their  anxiety  to  strike  the  first  blow,  sometimes  break  the  fingers  and 
hands  of  the  matrons.  The  piece  of  rag  is  preserved  over  the  doors  of  houses  in 
the  zenana.  In  the  evening  of  the  da^',  the  boys  of  the  lower  order  of  the  villages 
sing  the  songs  of  the  occasion  from  door  to  door  for  pice.'' 

Although  the  adoration  of  Flatulence  cannot  be  found  among  the  Chinese, 
religious  customs  equally  revolting  have  been  ascribed  to  them.  "The  Chinese 
are  addicted  to  the  abominable  vice  of  Sodomy,  and  the  filthy  practice  of  it  they 
number  among  the  indifferent  things  they  perform  in  honor  of  their  idols."  — 
("The  Travels  of  Two  Mahomedans  through  India  and  China,"  in  Pinkerton, 
vol.  vii.  p.  19.5.)     These  Mahomedans  travelled  in  the  ninth  century. 

"The  negroes  of  Guinea  have  a  god  of  the  small-pox."  See  "Fetichism,"  by 
Father  P.  Baudin,  New  York,  1885,  p.  74. 

According  to  the  Guinea  negroes,  "  Every  man  has  three  genii,  or  protecting 
spirits.  The  first  is  Eleda,  who  dwells  in  the  head,  which  he  guides.  .  .  .  This 
second  genius  (Ojehun)  has  his  habitation  in  the  region  of  the  stomach.  .  .  . 
Ipori,  the  third  protecting  genius,  takes  up  his  abode  in  the  great  toe."  —  (Idem, 
p.   43.) 

"The  Samoans  supposed  disease  to  be  occasioned  by  the  wrath  of  some  partic- 
ular deity.  .  .  .  The  friends  of  the  sick  went  to  the  high  priest  of  the  village. 
.  .  .  Each  disease  had  its  particular  physician."  —  (Turner,  "  Samoa,"  London, 
1884,  p.  140.)  See,  in  this  connection,  Banier's  "Mythology,"  English  transla- 
tion, vol.  i.  p.  196,  et  seq. 

"  They  (the  ancients)  had  gods  and  goddesses  for  all  the  necessaries  of  our  life, 
from  our  cradles  to  our  graves;  viz.,  1.  for  sucking;  2.  for  swathing;  3.  for 
eating  ;  4.  for  drinking  ;  5.  for  sleeping  ;  6.  for  husbandry  ;  7.  for  venery  ;  8.  for 
fighting  ;  9.  for  physic  ;  10.  for  marriage  ;  11.  for  child-bed  ;  12.  for  fire  ;  13.  for 
water;  14.  for  the  thresholds;  15.  for  the  chimneys."  —  (Harington,  "Ajax," 
P-   27.) 

Consult,  for  the  Chaldeans,  "  The  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,"  George  Smith, 


160  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

places  abound  in  physicians ;  some  physicians  are  for  the  eyes,  others 
for  the  teeth,  others  for  the  parts  about  the  belly,  aud  others  for  inter- 
nal disorders." —  (Herodotus,  "Euterpe,"  p.  82.) 

Hone  shows  that  every  joint  of  the  fingers  was  dedicated  to  some 
saint.  —  (See  his  "  Every-Day  Book,"  vol.  ii.  p.  48.) 

"  But,  under  the  venerated  name  of  Hermes,  were  issued  books  of 
astronomical  forecasts  of  diseases,  setting  forth  the  evil  influence  of 
malignant  stars  upon  the  unborn ;  telling  how  the  right  eye  is  under 
the  sun,  the  left  under  the  moon,  the  hearing  under  Saturn,  the  brain 
under  Jupiter,  the  tongue  and  throat  under  Mercury,  smelling  and 
tasting  under  Venus,  the  parts  that  have  blood  under  Mars.  .  .  .  The 
early  centuries  ne.\t  after  the  Christian  era  produced  a  rank  crop  of 
literary  forgeries." — (See  "Saxon  Leechdoms,"  voh  iii.  pp.  11,  12.) 

"The  New  Zcalanders  gave  a  separate  deity  to  each  part  of  the 
body."  — C' Folk-Medicine,"  Black,  p.  11.) 

The  interview  between  Moses  and  Jehovah,  where  the  latter  refused 
to  allow  the  prophet  to  see  the  glory  of  his  face,  but  made  him  content 
himself  with  a  view  of  his  posterior,  indicates  that  the  sacred  writers  of 
the  earlier  periods  were  living  in  an  atmosphere  of  thought  whicli 
accepted  all  such  ideas  as  those  surrounding  the  Bel-Phcgorian 
ceremonials. 

The  Hebrews  believed  that  Jehovah  should  be  propitiated  with 
sweet  savors  :^  "Offer  up  a  sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord."  Bel-Phegor 
aud  other  deities  of  the  gentiles,  who  were  the  gods  of  particular  parts 
of  the  human  body,  w'ould,  in  all  probability,  be  pleased  with  oblations 
coming  especially  from  that  particular  part;  thus,  the  god  of  Hunting 

New  York,  1880,  pages  11  and  125.  Dibbara,  the  god  of  ppstilence,  has  the  title 
of  "The  Darkening  One,"  which  recalls  the  passage  in  Psalm  xci.  6,  "The  pes- 
tilence that  walketh  in  darkness."  .  .  .  "Each  of  the  Babylonian  gods  had 
a  particular  city."  (Idem,  p.  46.)  "The  Chaldeans  had  twelve  great  gods." 
(Idem,  p.  47.)  See,  also,  "Chaldean  lilagic,"  Lenormant,  35.  It  was  written  of 
the  deceased  (EgA'ptian),  "There  is  not  a  limb  of  him  without  a  god."  ("Ritual 
of  the  Dead,"  cap.  xliii.,  idem.)  See  "Le  Moyen  Age  Medicale,"  Dupouy,  for  the 
list  of  saints  and  shrines  to  cure  all  afflictions,  in  Europe,  Minor's  translation, 
]).  83.  Those  possessed  claimed  to  be  in  the  power  of  a  demon,  who  entered  their 
body  by  one  of  the  natural  passages,  sporting  with  their  persons.  (Idem,  p.  50.) 
The  Church  recognized  the  truth  of  these  beliefs  (idem,  p.  40) ;  see,  also,  notes 
taken  from  Turner's  "Samoa." 

1  These  ideas  remained  among  the  early  Christians  :  "an  odor  of  a  sweet  smell ; 
a  sacrifice,  acceptable,  well-pleasing  to  God."  —  (Phil.  iv.  18.) 

So,  among  the  Chaldeans  :  "The  gods  smelt  the  savor,  the  gods  smelt  the  good 
savor."  —  ("Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,"  Smith,  p.  286.) 


THE  WORSHIP    OF   BEL-PHEGOR.  IGl 

had  offerings  of  game ;  the  gods  of  the  Seas  had  sacrifices  of  fish  ;  babies 
were  offered  to  the  deities  of  Childbirth;  therefore  the  gods  of  the 
fundament  should,  naturally,  be  regaled  with  excrement  and  flatulence. 

Haringtou  calls  attention  to  David's  prophecy  in  the  77th  Psalm  : 
"  Percussit  iuimicos  suos  in  posteriores,  opprobium  sempiternum  dedit 
illis."  "  He  smote  his  enemies  in  the  hinder  parts  and  put  them  to  a 
perpetual  shame."  —  ("  Ajax,"  p.  25.) 

The  absence  of  unity  is  the  characteristic  of  all  primitive  forms  of 
religious  thought ;  hence,  the  various  differentiations  mentioned  above 
occur  as  a  matter  of  religious  necessity. 

Among  the  practices  prohibited  by  the  Taoist  religion :  "  A  man 
must  not  sing  and  dance  on  the  last  day  of  the  moon.  .  .  .  Must  not 
weep,  spit,  or  be  guilty  of  other  indecency  towards  the  ]S'orth."  — 
(Legge,  "Religions  of  China,"  p.  187.) 

The  Parsis  have  a  curious  idea  suggestive  of  the  Hebrew  antagon- 
ism to  the  worship  of  Bel-Phegor  :  "14.  The  rule  is  that  when  one  re- 
tains a  prayer  inwardly  and  wind  shall  come  from  below,  or  wind  shall 
come  from  the  mouth,  it  is  all  one."  (Shayast  la  Shayast,  Max  Miiller's 
edition,  Oxford,  1880,  cp.  x.  verse  14,  p.  221.  A  footnote  explains: 
"  Literally,  '  both  are  one,'  that  is,  in  either  case  the  spell  of  the  vag  or 
prayer  is  broken.") 

"The  Bedawi,  who  eructates  as  a  matter  of  civility,  has  a  mortal 
hatred  to  a  crepitus  ventris ;  and  were  a  by-stander  to  laugh  at  its 
accidental  occurrence,  he  would  be  at  once  cut  down  as  a  'pundonor.' 
The  same  is  the  custom  among  the  Highlanders  of  Afghanistan.  And 
its  artificial  nature  suggests  direct  derivation ;  for  the  two  regions  are 
separated  by  a  host  of  tribes,  Persians  and  Beloch,  who  utterly  ignore 
the  pundoner  and  behave  like  Europeans.  The  raids  of  the  pre-Ish- 
maelitish  Arabs  over  the  lands  lying  to  the  northeast  of  them  are 
almost  forgotten ;  still,  there  are  traces,  and  this  may  be  one  of  them." 
—  (Burton,  "Arabian  Nights,"  vol.  v.  p.  137.) 

According  to  Niebuhr,  the  voiding  of  wind  is  considered  to  be  the 
gravest  indecency  among  the  Arabs ;  some  tribes  make  a  perpetual  butt 
of  the  offender  once  guilty  of  such  an  infraction  of  decorum ;  the  Bel- 
ludjages,  upon  the  frontiers  of  Persia,  expel  the  culprit  from  the  tribe. 
Yet  Niebuhr  himself  relates  that  a  sheik  of  the  tribe  "  Montesids  "  once 
had  a  contest  of  this  kind  among  his  henchmen,  "avoit  autoris^  un  defi 
dans  ce  genre  entre  ses  domestiques  et  couronne  le  vainqueur."  (Nie- 
buhr, "Description  de  I'arabie,"  Amsterdam,  1774,  p.  27.)  Snoring 
and  Flatulence  would  seem  to  have  been  considered  equally  offensive 

11 


162  SCATALOGIC  EITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

by  the  Tartars.  See  Marco  Polo's  reference  to  the  mode  of  selecting 
wives  for  the  Grand  Khau  (in  Purchas,  vol.  i.  p.  82).  He  says  that  the 
Grand  Khan  puts  those  deemed  to  be  eligible  under  the  care  of  "  his 
Barons'  wives,"  "  to  see  if  they  snore  not  in  their  sleepe,  if  in  smell  or 
behaviour  they  bee  not  offensive." 

"  Yet  it  is  holden  a  shame  with  them  to  let  a  fart,  at  which  they 
wondered  in  the  Hollanders,  esteeming  it  a  contempt."  —  ("  Xegroes 
of  Guinea,"  Purchas,  vol.  v.  p.  718.) 

On  the  Gold  Coast  of  Africa,  the  negroes  "are  very  careful  not  to 
let  a  fart,  if  anybody  be  by  them;  they  wonder  at  our  Netherlanders 
that  use  it  so  commonly,  for  they  cannot  abide  that  a  man  should  fart 
before  them,  esteeming  it  to  be  a  great  shame  and  contempt  done  unto 
them."  —  (Master  Richard  Jobson,  a.  d.  1620,  in  Purchas,  vol.  ii.  p.  93G.) 
In  the  Prussian  sect  of  dissenters  called  the  "Bezpopovtsi,"  "during  the 
service  of  Holy  Thursday,  certain  of  them,  known  as  *  gapers '  or 
'yawners,'  sit  for  hours  with  their  mouths  wide  open,  waiting  for  min- 
istering angels  to  quench  their  spiritual  thirst  from  invisible  chalices." 
—  (Heard,  "  Russian  Church  and  Russian  Dissent,"  pp.  200,  201.) 

Bastian,  in  "AUerlei  aus  Volks-und-Menschenkunde "  (vol.  i.  p.  9), 
quotes  from  Kubary,  "Religion  of  the  Pelew  Islands,"  to  the  effect 
that  in  cases  of  death,  the  vagina,  urethra,  rectum,  nostrils,  and  all 
other  orifices  of  the  body  are  tightly  closed  with  the  fibres  of  certain 
roots  or  sponge,  to  prevent  the  escape  of  any  of  the  liquids  of  the  body, 
which  seem  to  be  of  some  use  to  the  spirit  of  the  deceased.  —  (Con- 
tributed in  a  Personal  letter  from  Dr.  Gatchett  of  the  Bureau  of  Eth- 
nology, Washington,  D.  C.) 

In  Wallachia,  "  No  mode  of  execution  is  more  disgraceful  than  the 
gallows.  The  reason  alleged  is  that  the  soul  of  a  man  with  a  rope 
round  his  neck,  cannot  escape  from  his  mouth." —  (Maltebrun,  "Uni- 
versal Geography,"  Boston,  1847,  vol.  ii.  p.  458,  article  "Hungary.") 

"  The  soul  is  commonly  supposed  to  escape  by  the  natural  openings 
of  the  body,  especially  the  mouth  and  nostrils." — (Frazer,  "The  Gol- 
den Bough,"  vol.  i.  p.  125.) 

"  Caton  appliquait  k  I'objet  d'un  de  nos  chapitres  ;  '  Nullum  mihi 
vitium  facit.'  .  .  .  C'est  ce  que  disait  Caton  lorsq'un  de  ses  esclaves 
petoit  en  sa  presence."  —  (Bib.  Scat.,  "Oratio  pro  Guano  Humane," 
p.  21.) 

In  Angola,  West  Coast  of  Africa,  flatulence  is  freely  permitted 
among  the  natives,  but  any  license  of  this  kind,  taken  while  strangers 
are  in  the  vicinity,  is  regarded  as  a  most   deadly   insult.  —  ("  Mo- 


THE  WORSHIP   OF  BEL-PHEGOR.  1G3 

hongo,"  an  African  boy  from  Angola;    interpretation   by   Rev.    Mr. 
Chatelain.) 

The  poet  Horace  "  a  consacre  plusieurs  vers  an  sujet  qui  nous  occupe. 
On  peut  voir  particulierement  la  Satire  VIII.  qui  coutient  le  passage 
suivaut : — 

"  '  Mentior,  at  si  quid  merdis  caput  inquiner  albis 

Corvorum,  atque  in  me  veniat  mictum  atque  cacatum 

Julius,  et  fragilis  pedacia,  furque  Voranus.'  "  —  (Bib.  Scat.  p.  76.) 

The  celebrated  English  orator,  Charles  James  Fox,  is  credited  with 
the  authorship  of  "An  Essay  upon  Wind,"  published  anonymously  in 
London,  and  numbered  91  in  the  Bib.  Scat.  (p.  39). 

Martin  Luther  had  many  struggles  and  disputes  with  his  Satanic 
Majesty,  in  all  of  which  the  latter  came  off  second  best.  Melancthon 
is  cited  as  describing  one  of  these,  in  which  there  were  results 
worthy  of  incorporation  in  this  work :  "  Hoc  dicto  victus  Daemon, 
indignabundus  secumque  murmurans  abiit,  eliso  crepitu,  uon  exiguo, 
cujus  fussimen  tetri  odoris  dies  aliquot  redolebat  hypocaustum."  Vid. 
Job.  Wier,  de  Praestig.  Daemon,  cap.  7,  p.  m.  54,  in  Schurig,  "  Chylolo- 
gia,"  p.  795,  article  "De  Crepitu  Diaboli." 

"Luther  relates  a  story  of  a  lady  who  'Sathanum  crepitu  ventris 
fugavit.' "  —  ("  Les  Propos  de  Table  de  Luther,"  par  G.  Brunet,  Paris, 
1846,  p.  22,  quoted  in  Buckle's  "Commonplace  Book,"  p.  472,  vol.  ii. 
of  his  "Works."  All  the  English  editions  of  Luther's  "Table  Talk," 
so  far  as  known  to  the  author,  are  "  expurgated.") 

"  Ciceron,  considerant  le  Peditus  comma  une  victime  innocente, 
opprimee  par  la  civilisation  de  son  temps,  poussait  en  sa  faveur  le  cri 
de  liberte  et  formulait  sea  droits."  As  a  footnote  to  the  foregoing  we 
read  the  following  extract  from  Cicero  :  "  Crepitus  seque  liberos  ac  ructus 
esse  opportere."  —  (Lib.  9,  Epist.  22.) 

"  Memento  quia  ventus  est  vita  raea."  —  (Job.  vii.  9.) 

"Pedere  te  mallem,  namque  hoc  nee  inutile,  dicit  Symmachus,  ot 
risum  res  movet  ista  simul."  —  (Martial,  vii.  17,  9.) 

"  '  Le  Tonnerre,  ce  n'est  qu'un  Pet ; '  c'est  Aristophane  qui  le  dit." 

BpoVT^  Kttt  TTOpS^,   bflOLOi ("  NuCCS.") 

All  the  preceding  from  Bib.  Scat.,  article,  "  Oratio  pro  Guano 
Humano." 

Consult  Aristophanes,  "  The  Clouds,"  act  v.  scene  2. 

"  Dissertation  sur  le  dieu  Pet,"  par  M.  Claude  Terrin.  —  This  author 
is  stated  to  have  cited  from  Clemens  Romanus  and  Saint  Ctesar.  —  (See 
Bib.  Scat.,  p.  37.) 


1G4  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

Suetonius  has  the  foUowiug  remarks  upon  the  Roman  Emperor 
Claudius  :  "  It  is  said  too  that  he  intended  to  publish  an  edict  .  .  . 
allowing  to  all  people  the  liberty  of  giving  vent  at  table  to  any  disten- 
sion occasioned  by  flatulence."  This  was  upon  "  hearing  of  a  person 
whose  modesty,  under  such  circumstances,  had  nearly  cost  him  his 
life."  —  ("  Claudius,"  xxxii.) 

Plutarch  asks  the  question  :  "  Question  95.  Why  was  it  ordained 
that  they  that  were  to  live  chaste  should  abstain  from  pulse  1  ...  Or 
rather  was  it  because  they  should  bring  empty  and  slender  bodies  to 
their  purifications  and  expiations  1  For  pulse  are  windy  and  cause  a 
great  deal  of  excrements  that  require  purging  off.  Or  is  it  because 
they  excite  lechery  by  reason  of  their  flatulent  and  windy  nature  " 
("Morals,"  Goodwin's  English  translation,  Boston,  1870,  vol.  ii.  p. 
254.) 

"  The  fact  that  in  honor  of  the  arrival  of  friends,  the  house  is  swept 
and  strewn  with  sand,  and  that  the  people  bathe  at  such  occasions, 
shows  that  cleanliness  is  appreciated.  The  current  expression  is  that 
the  house  is  so  cleaned  that  no  bad  smell  remains  to  offend  the  guest. 
For  the  same  reason  the  Indian  takes  repeated  baths  before  praying, 
*  that  he  may  be  agreeable  to  the  Deity.' "  —  ("  Report  on  the  North- 
western Tribes  of  Canada,"  Dr.  Franz  Boas,  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  Meeting,  1889,  p.  19.) 

"  Saul  went  into  a  cave  *  ut  purgaret  ventrem.' "  —  (Harington, 
"Ajax,"  p.  25.) 


OBSCENE  TENURES.  165 


xxn. 

OBSCENE   TENURES. 

TN  close  connection  with  this  worship  of  Bel-Phegor,  if  there  ever 
-*-  was  such  a  worship,  may  be  examined  the  obscene  tenures  by 
which  certain  estates  in  England  were  held  in  "  sergeantcy."  No  less  an 
authority  than  Buckle,  the  historian,  deemed  an  investigation  of  these 
not  beneath  the  dignity  of  his  intellect,  as  may  be  ascertained  by  a 
glance  at  his  article  *'  Contributions  to  the  History  of  the  Pet,"  in  his 
*'  Commonplace  Book,"  p.  472.  He  refers  to  "  Miscellanea  Antica 
Auglicana,"  Blount's  "Ancient  Tenures,"  Luther's  "  Table  Talk  "  (as 
above),  Dulaure's  "  Des  Divinites  Generatrices,"  Niebuhr's  "  Descrip- 
tion of  Arabia,"  GifFord's  edition  of  Ben  Jonson,  "  The  Staple  of 
News,"  by  Ben  Jonson,  Wright's  "  Political  Ballads,"  in  vols.  iii.  and 
vii.  of  the  Percy  Society's  publications.  With  the  exception  of  the 
first  named,  all  the  above  have  been  examined,  and  a  transcription 
made  of  the  notes,  which  will  be  found  inserted  in  their  proper 
place. 

"  The  Lord  of  the  Manor  of  Essington  holds  tenure  from  the  lord  of 
the  Manor  of  Hilton  in  this  way.  He,  the  first  named,  must  bring  a 
goose  each  New  Year  to  the  hall  of  the  Manor  of  Hilton,  and  drive  it  at 
least  three  times  aroimd  the  fire,  '  while  Jack  of  Hilton  is  blowing  the 
fire.'  This  Jack  of  Hilton  is  an  image  of  brass,  of  about  twelve  inches 
high,  kneeling  on  his  left  knee,  and  holding  his  right  hand  upon  his 
head,  and  his  left  upon  pego,  or  his  viretrum,  erected,  having  a  little 
hole  at  the  mouth,  at  which,  being  filled  with  water,  and  set  to  a 
strong  fire,  which  makes  it  evaporate  like  an  aelopile,  it  vents  itself  in 
constant  blast,  so  strongly  that  it  is  very  audible,  and  blows  the  fire 
fiercely."  —  (Blount,  "  Tenures  of  Land  and  Customs  of  Manors," 
Hazlitt's  edition,  London,  1874,  p.  118.) 

This  recalls  the  "mannikin"  of  Brussels,  which  may  have  super- 
seded some  long  since  forgotten  local  deity ;  it  still  serves  political 
purposes  occasionally. 


166  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Elount's  work  was  first  issued  under  the  title  of  "Jocular  Tenures." 

The  previilunce  of  phallic  worship  all  over  Flanders  should  be  ad- 
verted to  in  mentioning  the  "mannikin  "  of  Brussels. 

Dulaure  ("Des  differens  Cultes,"  Paris,  1826,  vol.  ii.  p.  272  et  seq.) 
describes  the  phallic  shrines  of  Saints  Foutin,  Guerlichon  et  al.  *'  Anne 
d'Autriche,  epouse  de  Louis  XIII. ,  y  alia  en  pelerinage,"  —  that  is,  to 
the  shrine  of  Saint  Foutin. 

He  also  shows  that  the  use  of  the  "  raclure  "  of  these  phallic  saints 
prevailed  in  France  until  the  opening  years  of  the  present  century. 

"Kowland,  le  Sai'cere,  holds  one  hundred  and  ten  acres  of  land  in 
Hemington,  County  of  Suffolk,  by  serjeantcy,  for  which  on  Christmas 
Day,  every  year,  before  our  sovereign  lord  tlie  King  of  England,  he 
should  perform  altogether  and  at  once  a  leap,  a  puff,  and  a  fart."  — 
(Idem  p.  154.) 

"  One  Baldwin  also  formerly  held  these  lands  by  the  same  service, 
and  was  called  by  the  nickname  of  Baldwin  le  Peteur,  or  Baldwin 
the  Farter."  < —  (Idem,  p.  154.) 

Dr.  Fletcher,  president  of  the  Anthropological  Society  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  reference  to  the  above 
tenure  of  Baldwin,  "  per  saltum,  sufflatum,  et  pettum,"  is  given  in  the 
Ingoldsby  Legends,  "  The  Spectre  of  Tappington,"  based  upon  Blount. 
Ducange,  in  his  "  Glossarium,"  proves  the  antiquity  of  these  tenures, 
which  go  back,  so  far  as  known,  to  the  earliest  years  of  the  fourteenth 
century."  —  (See  Ducange,  article  "  Bombus.") 

Ducange  also  describes  the  peculiar  custom  governing  the  admission 
of  "  filia  communis  "  into  the  "  villa  Montis  Lucii,"  of  which  more 
anon. 

'*  Barrington,  in  his  *  Observations  on  the  Statutes,'  speaking  of  the 
people,  says  :  "  They  were  also,  by  the  customs  prevailing  in  particular 
districts,  subject  to  services  not  only  of  the  most  servile,  but  the  most 
ludicrous  nature.*  *  Utpote  Die  Nativitatis  Domini  coram  eo  saltare. 
buccas  cum  sonitu  inflare,  et  ventrum  crepitum  edere.'  (Struvii 
Jurispr.  Feud.  p.  541.)  Sir  Richard  Cox,  in  his  'History  of  Ireland,' 
likewise  mentions  some  very  ridiculous  customs  which  continued  in  the 
year  1565." — (Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  i.  p.  515,  article 
"  Fool-Plough  and  Sword-Dance.") 

**  Monstrelet,  en  d^crivant  une  fete  que  donna  en  1453  le  due  de 
Bourgogne,  dit  qu'on  y  voyait ;  une  pucelle  qui,  de  sa  mamelle,  ver- 
sait  hypocras  en  grande  largesse ;  ti  cote  de  la  pucelle  etait  un  jeune 
enfant  qui,  de  sa  broquette,  rendait  eau  rose."  —  (Chroniq.  vol.  iii. 


OBSCENE   TENURES.  1G7 

fol.  55  V ;  Dulaure,  "  Traite  des  DifFerens  Cultes,"  vol.  i.  p.  324,  foot- 
note.) 

That  these  customs,  absurd,  obscene,  irrational,  as  they  appear  in 
the  light  of  to-day,  had  their  origin  in  the  mists  of  antiquity  is  not  at 
all  improbable  ;  neither  is  it  a  violent  assumption  to  attribute  a  reli- 
gious origin  to  them.  It  is  conceded  that  they  had  all  the  force  of 
legalized  customs  ;  and  law  was  anciently  part  and  parcel  of  religion's 
dower. 

The  remarks  of  Ducange  are  inserted  because  they  may  not  be 
readily  accessible  to  every  reader.  He  quotes  from  Canideu  and 
Spellman. 

Baldwin  "Qui  tenuit  terras  in  Comitatu  Suffolciensi,  per  serjenciam 
pro  qua  debuit  facere,  singulis  annis  (die  Natali  Domini),  coram  Domi- 
no Rege,  unum  saltnm,  unum  sufflatum,  et  unum  borabulum." 

"  Hemingston,  wherein  Baldwin  le  Petteur  (observe  the  name)  held 
land  by  serjeantcy  (thus  an  ancient  book  expresses  it),  for  which  he 
was  obliged  every  Christmas  Day  to  perform  before  our  lord  the  King 
of  England  one  saltus,  one  sufflatus,  and  one  bumbulus ;  or  as  it  is 
read  in  another  place,  he  held  it  by  a  saltus,  a  sufflus,  and  a  pettus, 
—  that  is  (if  I  apprehend  it  aright),  he  was  to  dance,  make  a  noise 
with  his  cheeks,  and  let  a  fart.  Such  was  the  plain,  jolly  mirth  of 
those  days."  —  (Camden,  "Brittania,"  edition  of  London,  1753,  vol.  i. 
p.  444.) 

Grimm  was  impressed  with  the  undeniable  intermixture  of  the  old 
religious  doctrine  with  the  system  of  law ;  for  the  latter,  "  even  after 
the  adoption  of  the  new  faith,  would  not  part  with  certain  old  forms 
and  usages."  ("Teutonic  Mythol.,"  introduc.  p.  12.)  In  another  para- 
graph he  says :  "  I  shall  try  elsewhere  to  show  in  detail  how  a  good 
deal  in  the  gestures  and  attitudes  prescribed  for  certain  legal  transac- 
tions savors  of  priestly  ceremony  at  sacrifice  and  prayer."  —  (Idem, 
vol.  1.  p.  92.) 


168  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XXIII. 

TOLLS  OF  FLATULENCE  EXACTED  OF  PEOSTITUTES 
IN  FRANCE. 

A  NOTHER  odd  usage  of  which  no  explanation  has  been  transmitted 
■^^*-     is  thus  described  by  Ducange,  Dulaure,  and  others  :  — 

"En  outre,  chaque  fille  publique  qui  se  livre  a  quelque  homme  que 
ce  soit,  lorsqu'elle  entre  pour  la  premiere  fuis  dans  la  ville  de  Mont- 
lucon,  doit  payer  sur  le  pont  de  cette  ville  quatre  deniers,  ou  y  faire 
un  pet." — (Dulaure,  "  des  Divin.  Generat."  p.  279,  quoting  from 
Ducange,  "  Glossarium,"  article  "  Bombus.") 

In  a  work  by  the  Abbe  Roubaud,  entitled  "  La  Peterade,  poeme  en 
quatre  chants,"  we  are  informed,  *'  II  renvoie  k  Ducange  pour  prouver 
qu'en  France  on  admettait  les  pets  comme  monnaie  de  cours  en  paiement 
des  peages.  .  .  .  Bombi  pro  scudis  valebant."  —  ("  Bib.  Scatalogica," 
p.  48.) 

If  we  may  believe  Victor  Hugo,  the  custom  of  the  "peage"  at  the 
bridge  of  Montluc  was  generally  known  to  the  people  of  France  in 
the  fifteenth  century.  Thus,  in  the  first  chapter  of  "  Notre  Dame," 
the  populace  of  Paris,  at  the  Feast  of  Fools,  are  represented  as  indulg- 
ing in  much  badinage,  — 

"  Dr.  Claude  Choart,  are  you  seeking  Marie  la  Giffardsl" 

♦'  She  's  in  the  Rue  de  Glatigny." 

"She's  paying  her  four  deniers,  —  quatuor  denarios." 

"  Aut  imura  bumbum." 

Dulaure  again  quotes  Ducange  in  regard  to  the  tolls  demanded  of 
public  women  first  crossing  the  bridge  at  Montluc.  He  finds  de- 
scription of  this  peculiar  toll  in  registers  dating  back  to  1398  ;  he  also 
sees  the  resemVilance  between  this  toll  and  the  tenure  of  the  Manor  of 
Essington.  — (See  "  Traite  des  Dif.  Cultes,"  vol.  ii.  p.  315,  footnote.) 

Surgeon  Robert  ]\[.  O'Reilly,  U.  S.  Army,  states  that  among  the 
Irish  settlers  who  came  to  the  United  States  in  the  closing  hours  of  the 
last  century  the  expression  was  common,  in  speaking  of  Flatulence,  to 
term  it  "  Sir-Reverence." 


TOLLS   OF   FLATULENCE  EXACTED   OF   PROSTITUTES.  1G9 

** Sir-Reverence.  In  old  writers,  a  common  corruption  of  'save  rev- 
erence,' or  *  saving  your  reverence,'  —  an  apologetic  phrase  used  when 
mentioning  anything  deemed  improper  or  unseemly,  and  especially 
a  euphemism  for  stercus  humanum.^^  'Cagada,'  a  surreverence."  — 
(Stevens's  "  Sp.  Diet.,"  1706.) 

"Siege,  stool,  sir-reverence,  excrement." — (Bishop  Wilkins's  " Es- 
say towards  a  Philosophical  Language,"  1688,  p.  241.) 

"  Thoo  grins  like  a  dog  eating  sir-reverence."  (Holderness,  "Glos- 
sary, English  Dialect  Society.")  Compare  Spanish  salvanor,  anus. 
(Stevens.)  —  ("  Folk-Etymology,"  Eev.  A.  Smith  Palmer,  London, 
1882) 

THE   SACRED    CHARACTER    OF    BRIDGE-BUILDING. 

It  is  quite  within  the  bounds  of  argument  and  proof  to  show  that 
the  Eomans  looked  upon  the  building  of  a  bridge  as  a  sacred  work. 
Upon  no  other  hypothesis  can  we  make  clear  why  their  chief  priest 
was  designated  "  the  Greatest  Bridge-Builder  "  (the  Pontifex  Maximus). 
That  this  idea  was  transmitted  to  the  barbarians  who  occupied  Conti- 
nental and  insular  Europe  would  be  a  most  plausible  presumption, 
even  were  historical  evidence  lacking. 

Concerning  the  tolls  exacted  from  the  prostitutes  who  crossed  cer- 
tain bridges  in  France,  and  the  tenures  by  which  certain  estates  were 
held  in  England,  we  have  to  bear  in  mind  that  during  the  Middle  Ages 
bridges  were  erected  by  bodies  or  associations  of  bridge-builders,  which 
seem  to  have  been  secret  societies.  "  It  seems  not  improbable  that 
societies  or  lodges  of  bridge-builders  existed  at  an  early  period,  and 
that  they  were  relics  of  the  policy  of  Roman  times  ;  but  the  history  of 
such  societies  is  involved  in  obscurity.  The  Church  appears  to  have 
taken  them  up  and  encouraged  them  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  then 
they  were  endowed  with  a  certain  religious  character.  .  .  .  The  order 
of  bridge-builders  at  Avignon,  with  the  peculiar  love  of  punning  which 
characterized  the  Middle  Ages,  were  called  *  fratres  pontificales,'  and 
sometimes  '  fratres  pontis '  and  '  factores  pontium.'  .  .  .  According  to 
Ducange  (Gloss,  v.  fratres  pontis),  their  dress  was  a  white  vest  with  a 
sign  of  a  bridge  and  cross  of  cloth  on  the  breast."  ("  Essays  on 
Archaeological  Subjects,"  Thomas  "Wright,  London,  1861,  vol.  ii.  p.  137 
et  seq.,  article  "  Mediaeval  Bridge-Builders.")  In  this  connection  it 
may  be  just  as- well  to  remember  that  the  Pope  of  Rome  is  still  the 
Pontifex  Maximus. 

Knowing  that  bridges  were  constructed  by  secret  societies,  we 
have  fought  out  half  our  battle ;  for  these  secret  societies  were  un- 


170  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL  NATIO^'S. 

doubtedly  under  the  patronage  and  protection  of  some  god  in  heathen 
times,  or  of  some  saint  in  later  days,  reserving  for  the  honor  of  the 
latter  the  same  ritual  which  had  been  consecrated  to  the  devotion  of 
the  heathen  predecessor. 

The  following  from  Fosbroke  is  pertinent :  "  Plutarch  derives  the 
word  '  Ton tifex  '  from  sacrifices  made  upon  bridges,  —  a  ceremony  of 
the  highest  antiquity.  These  priests  are  said  to  have  been  commissioned 
to  keep  the  bridges  in  repair,  as  an  indispensable  part  of  their  office. 
This  custom  no  doubt  gave  birth  to  the  chapel  on  London  bridge,  and 
the  offerings  were  of  course  for  repairs."  In  another  place  he  mentions 
"  the  annexation  of  chapels  to  almost  all  our  bridges  of  note."  — 
("  Cyclopccdia  of  Antiquities,"  London,  1843,  vol.  i.  pp.  G2,  14G, 
article  "  Bridges.") 

"  Gottling  (Gesch.  d.  Rom.  Staatsv.  p.  173)  thinks  that  Tontifex' 
is  only  another  form  for  '  pompifex,'  which  would  characterize  the 
pontiffs  only  as  the  managers  and  conductors  of  public  processions  and 
solemnities.  But  it  seems  far  more  probable  that  the  word  is  formed 
from  poHs  and  facere,  .  .  .  and  that  consequently  it  signifies  the  priest 
who  offered  sacrifices  upon  the  bridge." —  ("  Dictionary  of  Greek  and 
Roman  Antiquities,"  William  Smith,  LL.  D.,  Boston,  1849,  article 
"  Pontifcx.") 

"  Les  Romains  avaient  reuni  en  college  sacerdotale  leurs  construc- 
teurs  de  pouts."  —  ("Les  Primitifs,"  Elie  Reclus,  Paris,  1S85,  p.  IIG.) 

Among  the  Romans  —  who  were  the  great  architects  of  the  European 
world,  and  whose  aqueducts,  baths,  roads,  and  bridges  have  never 
been  approached  in  strength  or  beauty  by  those  of  any  other  nation 
about  them  —  it  was  to  be  expected  that  the  title  of  the  great  priest 
should  be  Pontifex  INfaximus,  on  the  same  principle  that  among  the 
Todas  of  the  Nilgherris,  who  are  pre-eminently  a  pastoral  race,  the 
chief  medicine  man  or  priest  is  called  Palal,  "  meaning  the  Great 
Milker." — (See  for  these  statements  "Les  Primitifs,"  Reclus,  p.  260, 
article  "Les  Monticules  des  Nilgherris.") 

The  legends  of  the  Middle  Ages,  all  over  Europe,  from  South  Ger- 
many to  Scandinavia,  are  filled  with  references  to  bridges,  mills,  and 
churches,  but  especially  bridges,  built  by  the  Devil  exclusively  or  by 
his  assistance  ;  and  in  every  case  there  is  the  suggestion  of  human 
sacrifice  having  been  offered. 

"As  a  rule,  the  victims  were  captive  enemies,  purchased  slaves  or 
great  criminals.  .  .  .  Hence,  in  our  own  folk-tales,  the  first  to  cross 
the  bridge,  the  first  to  enter  the  new  building  or  the  country,  pays 


TOLLS   OF  FLATULENCE  EXACTED   OF  PROSTITUTES.  171 

with  his  Hfe,  which  meant  falls  a  sacrifice.  ...  In  folk-tales  we  find 
traces  of  the  immolation  of  children ;  they  are  killed  as  a  cure  for 
leprosy,  they  are  wailed  up  in  basements.  .  .  .  Extraordinary  events 
might  demand  the  death  of  kings'  sons  and  daughters,  nay,  of  kings 
themselves." —  ("Teutonic  Mythology,"  Grimm,  vol.  i.  p.  46.) 

"  When  the  Devil  builds  the  bridge,  he  is  either  under  compulsion 
from  men  or  is  hunting  for  a  soul ;  but  he  has  to  put  up  with  the  cock 
or  chamois,  which  is  purposely  made  to  run  first  across  the  new 
bridge,"  or  "  they  make  a  wolf  scamper  through  the  door  "  of  the  new 
church,  or  a  goat.  —  (Idem,  vol.  iii.  p.  102.) 

"AVhen  the  new  bridge  at  Halle,  finished  in  1843,  was  building  the 
common  people  fancied  a  child  was  wanted  to  be  walled  into  the  foun- 
dations."—  (Idem,  vol.  iii.  p.  1142.) 

"  In  modern  Greece,  when  the  foundation  of  a  new  building  is  being 
laid,  it  is  the  custom  to  kill  a  cock,  a  ram,  or  a  lamb,  and  to  let  its 
blood  flow  on  the  foundation-stone,  under  which  the  animal  is  after- 
wards buried.  The  object  of  the  sacrifice  is  to  give  strength  and  sta- 
bility to  the  building.  But  sometimes,  instead  of  killing  an  animal, 
the  builder  entices  a  man  to  the  foundation-stone,  secretly  measures 
his  body  or  a  part  of  it,  or  his  shadow,  and  buries  them  under  the 
foundation-stone,  or  he  lays  the  foundation-stone  on  the  man's  shadow. 
It  is  believed  that  the  man  will  die  within  a  year."  —  ("  The  Golden 
Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  144.) 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  carry  this  part  of  the  discussion  farther. 
The  curious  may  consult  Grimm,  who  shows  the  frequency  with  which 
human  victims  were  walled  up  alive  in  new  castles,  ramparts,  bridges, 
and  other  structures.  As  time  passed  on  and  man  grew  wiser,  there 
•was  a  substitution  of  a  coffin  as  a  symbol  of  the  human  victim ;  in 
stables  a  calf  or  a  lamb  was  buried  alive  under  the  main  door,  some- 
times a  cock  or  a  goat ;  under  altars,  a  live  lamb  ;  in  newly  opened 
graveyards,  a  live  horse.  All  this  testimony  points  conclusively  to  the 
fact  that  every  such  structure  was  begun  at  least  under  auspices  from 
which  all  traces  and  suggestions  of  heathenism  had  not  yet  been  elimi- 
nated ;  consequently  we  shall  not  be  very  much  in  error  in  deciding 
that  there  was  some  survival  of  a  religious  rite  in  the  peculiar  cere- 
mony insisted  upon  at  crossing  the  bridge  of  Monti uc,  or  that  it,  as  all 
others,  was  built  by  architects  who  still  adhered  to  the  old  cultus,  and 
had  influence  enough  with  the  rustic  population  to  secure  the  incor- 
poration of  certain  features  of  a  sacred  character  belonging  to  the 
superseded  ritual,  and  which  have  come  down  to  t\s,  or  almost  to  us, 
in  a  more  or  less  mutilated  and  distorted  condition. 


172  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

A  very  interesting  article  is  to  be  found  in  "  Melusine,"  Paris,  May  5, 
1888,  which  may  be  read  with  great  profit  at  this  moment ;  it  is  en- 
titled "  Les  Kites  de  la  Construction,'*  and  relates  the  popular  tradi- 
tion of  the  failure  to  maintain  a  bridge  at  a  place  called  Resporden,  in 
Cornwall,  as  each  was  swept  away  by  flood  almost  as  soon  as  com- 
pleted. The  good  people  of  the  vicinity  suspected  sorcery  and  witch- 
craft, and  consulted  a  witch,  whose  directions  were  couched  in  these 
terms  :  "  Si  les  gens  de  Resporden  veulent  avoir  un  pont  qui  ne  fasse 
plus  la  culbute,  ils  devront  enterrer  vivant  dans  les  fondations  un  petit 
gar9on  de  quatre  ans.  .  .  .  On  placera  I'enfant  dans  une  futaille  de- 
foncee,  tout  nu,  et  il  tiendra  d'une  main  une  chandelle  bcnite,  de 
I'autre  nu  morceau  de  pain." 

An  unnatural  mother  was  found  who  gave  her  infant  son  for  the 
sacrifice,  receiving  some  compensation,  and  the  poor  victim  was  walled 
up  alive  as  directed ;  the  bridge  was  completed,  and  has  since  with- 
stood all  the  ravages  of  storm  and  freshet ;  but  the  tale  still  repeats  the 
last  words  of  the  hapless  babe,  — 

"  Ma  chandelle  est  morte,  ma  mere, 
Et  de  pain,  11  ne  me  reste  miette." 

The  unnatural  mother  very  properly  went  insane  in  a  few  days  after 
the  sacrifice ;  and  the  wail  of  the  abandoned  babe  is  still  to  be  heard 
in  the  moaning  of  the  winds  and  the  sobs  of  the  rains  that  fall  upon 
Resporden. 


OBSCENE  SURVIVALS  IN   GAMES   OF   ENGLISH  EUSTICS.        173 


XXIV. 

OBSCENE  SURVIVALS   IN  THE  GAMES   OP  THE 
ENGLISH   RUSTICS. 

^r^HE  rough  games  of  the  English  rustics  are  not  altogether  free  from 
-"-  vestiges  of  the  same  nature  as  have  been  recorded  of  the  Arabian 
sheik  in  pi'eceding  pages.     For  example,  in  Northumberland,  England, 

there  was  a  curious  diversion  called  "  F g  for  the  pig."     Brand 

gives  no  explanation  of  the  custom,  which  may  be  allied  to  the  jocular 
tenures  mentioned  by  Blount,  and  with  them  to  the  worship  of  Bel- 
Phegor.  Brand  says  :  "  The  ancient  grossierete  of  our  manners  would 
almost  exceed  belief.      In  the   stage  directions   to  old  Moralites  we 

often  find,  *  Here  Satan  letteth  a  f .'  "  —  ('  Popular  Antiquities," 

vol.  ii.  p.  9,  article  "  Country  Wakes.") 

In  London  itself  such  "  survivals "  lingered  down  to  very  recent 
periods.  "  In  former  times  the  porters  that  plyed  at  Billingsgate 
used  civilly  to  entreat  and  desire  every  man  that  passed  that  way  to 
salute  a  post  that  stood  there  in  a  vacant  place.     If  he  refused  to  do 

this,  they  forthwith  laid  hold  of  him,  and  by  main  force  bouped  his 

against  the  post ;  but  if  he  quietly  submitted  to  kiss  the  same,  and 
paid  down  sixpence,  then  they  gave  him  a  name,  and  chose  some  one  of 
the  gang  for  his  godfather.  I  believe  this  was  done  in  memory  of 
some  old  image  that  formerly  stood  there,  perhaps  of  Belius  or  Belin." 
—  (Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  ii.  p.  433,  article  "  Kissing  the 
Post.") 

All  these  customs,  absurd  as  they  seem  to  us,  may  have  been  parts 
of  the  ritual  of  deities  of  the  same  class  as  Bel-Phegor,  who  looked 
after  the  excreta  perhaps,  and  the  organs  connected  therewith ;  some 
kind  of  a  tribute  was  demanded,  and  none  could  be  more  appropriate 
than  the  offering  of  the  parts  or  the  submission  to  some  pain  inflicted 
upon  them  by  those  in  charge  of  the  shrine. 

Crossing  the  Atlantic,  a  custom  suspiciously  like  the  preceding, 
was  still  to  be  heard  of,  as  a  rough  boyish  prank,  in   Philadelphia, 


174  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

Penn.,  thirty  or  more  years  ago.  Whenever  it  happened  that  any  boy 
■was  guilty  of  flatulence,  all  the  party  of  school-boys  would  cry,  "  Touch 
wood  !  "  and  run  to  touch  the  nearest  tree-box  ;  those  who  were  slow  in 
doing  this  were  pounded  by  the  more  rapid  ones. 

"  Then,  lads  and  lasses,  merry  be, 

And,  to  make  sport, 

I  f 1  and  snort." 

("  The   Pranks  of  Robin  Goodfellow,"  supposed  to  be  by  Ben  Jonson,  quoted  in 
Hazlitt's  "Fairy  Tales,"  London,  1875,  p.  420.) 

The  following  memoranda  from  Buckle,  "Commonplace  Book,"  seem 
to  have  no  value  beyond  merely  filthy  stories  :  — 

"  Ludlow's  f was  a  prophetique  trump  ; 

There  never  was  anything  so  jump  ; 
'T  was  a  very  type  of  a  vote  of  this  rump. 
Which  nobody  can  deny." 

Ludlow  is  a  stanch  Republican.  The  incident  alluded  to  was  a  sub- 
ject of  much  merriment,  and  exercised  the  pen  of  some  of  the  choicest 
poets  of  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  —  ("  Ballad  :  A 
New  Year's  Gift  for  the  Rump,"  Jan.  5,  1659,  and  footnote  in  Percy 
Society's  "  Early  English  Poetry,"  London,  1841,  vol.  iii.  p.  176.) 

"  And  then  my  poets. 
The  same  that  writ  so  subtly  of  the  fart." 

("  The  Alchemist,"  Ben  Jonson,  act  ii.  scene  1.) 

"Who  the  author  alluded  to  should  be  I  cannot  say.  In  the  col- 
lection of  poems  called  '  Musarum  Delicite  ;  or,  The  Muse's  Recrea- 
tion,' by  Sir  John  Ennis  and  Dr.  Smith,  there  is  a  poem  called  *  The 
Fart  censured  in  the  Parliament  House.'  It  was  occasioned  by  an  es- 
cape of  that  kind  in  the  House  of  Commons.  I  have  seen  part  of  this 
poem  ascribed  to  an  author  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  and  possibly  it 
may  be  the  thing  referred  to  by  Jonson."  (Whalley.)  But  Giflbrd, 
from  whose  later  editions  I  have  drawn  my  material,  comments  to  the 
efifect  that  "this  escape,  as  Whalley  calls  it,  took  place  in  1607,  long 
after  the  time  of  Elizabeth.  The  ballad  is  among  the  Harleian  Manu- 
scripts, and  is  also  printed  in  the  State  Poems  ;  it  contains  about  forty 
stanzas  of  the  most  wretched  doggerel."  —  (Gifford's  edition  of  Jon- 
son, London,  1816.) 

"  The  Fool  of  Cornwalle."  "  I  was  told  of  a  humorous  knight  dwel- 
ling in  the  same  countrey  (that  is,  Cornwall),  who  upon  a  time,  having 


OBSCENE  SURVIVALS   IN   GAMES   OF  ENGLISH   RUSTICS.        175 

gathered  together  in  one  open  market-place  a  great  assemblie  of  knights, 
squires,  gentlemen,  and  yeomen,  and  whilest  they  stood  expecting  to 
heare  some  discourse  or  speech  to  proceed  from  him,  he,  in  a  foolish 
manner  (not  without  laughter),  began  to  use  a  thousand  jestures,  tuni- 
ing  his  eyes  this  way  and  then  that  way,  seeming  always  as  though 
presently  he  would  have  begun  to  speake,  and  at  last,  fetching  a  deepe 
sii^h,  with  a  grunt  like  a  hogge,  he  let  a  beastly  loud  fart,  and  tould 
them  that  the  occasion  of  this  calling  them  together  was  to  no  other 
end  but  that  so  noble  a  fart  might  be  honoured  with  so  noble  a  com- 
pany as  there  was." —  ("Jack  of  Dover's  Quest  of  Inquiry,"  in  Percy 
Society,  vol.  vii.  p.  30,  London,  1852.     "Jack  of  Dover,"  a.  d.  1604.) 

"  The  Foole  of  Lincoln."  "  There  dwelleth  of  late  a  certaine  poore 
labouring  man  in  Lincoln,  who,  upon  a  time,  after  his  wife  had  so  re- 
viled him  with  tongue  nettle  as  the  whole  streete  rung  again  for  weari- 
ness thereof,  at  last  he  went  out  of  the  house,  and  sate  him  downe 
quietly  upon  a  blocke  before  his  owne  doore  ;  his  wife,  being  more  out 
of  patience  by  his  quietness  and  gentle  sufFeraunce,  went  up  into  the 
chamber,  and  out  at  the  window  powred  downe  a  pisse-pot  upon  Lis 
head ;  which  when  the  poor  man  sawe,  in  a  merry  moode  he  spake 
these  words  :  'Now,  surely,'  quoth  he,  *  I  thought  at  last  that  after  so 
great  a  thunder  we  should  have  some  raine.'  "  —  (Idem,  vol.  vii.  p.  15.) 

The  preceding  filthy  pleasantry  comes  down  from  a  very  distin- 
guished origin.  Harington  recalls  the  adventure  of  the  "  good  Socrates, 
who,  when  Xantippe  had  crowned  him  with  a  chamber-pot,  he  bore  it 
off  single  with  his  head  and  shoulders,  and  said  to  such  as  laughed 
at  it,  — 

"  It  never  yet  was  deemed  a  wonder 
To  see  that  rain  should  follow  thunder." 

("Ajax,"p.  94.) 

"  Nathaniel.    They  write  from  Libtzig  (reverence  to  your  ears) 

The  art  of  drawing  farts  from  out  of  dead  bodies 

Is  by  the  brotherhood  of  the  Rosie  Cross 

Produced  unto  perfection,  in  so  sweet 

And  rich  a  tincture." 
("The   Staple  of  News,"  Ben  Jonson,  Gifford's  edition,   London,  1816,  act  iii. 
scene  1,  p.  240.) 


176  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XXV. 

URINE   AND   ORDUEE  AS   SIGNS   OF   MOURNING. 

/^ARE  should  be  taken  to  distiuguish  between  the  religious  use  of 
^-^  ordure  and  urine,  and  that  in  which  they  figure  as  outward  signs 
of  mourning,  induced  by  a  frenzy  of  grief,  or  where  they  have  been 
utilized  in  the  arts. 

Lord  Kingsborough  (Mexican  Antiquities,  vol.  viii.  p.  237)  briefly 
outlines  such  ritualistic  defilement  in  the  Mortuary  Ceremonies  of 
Hebrews  and  Aztecs,  giving  as  references  for  the  latter  Diego  Duran, 
and  for  the  former  the  prophet  Zechariah,  chap.  iii. :  "Now  Joshua 
was  clothed  with  filthy  garments,  and  stood  before  the  angel,"  etc. 

"  The  nearest  relations  cut  their  hair  and  blacken  their  faces,  and 
the  old  women  put  human  excrement  on  their  heads, — the  sign  of 
the  deepest  mourning."  —  ("The  Native  Tribes  of  South  Australia," 
Adelaide,  1879,  pp.  200,  received  through  the  kindness  of  the  Eoyal 
Society,  New  South  Wales,  T.  B.  Kyngdon,  Secretary.) 


URINE  AND   ORDURE   IN   INDUSTKIKS.  177 


XXVI. 

URTNE   AND   OKDURE   IN   INDUSTRIES. 

(^r^HE  economical  value  of  human  and  animal  excreta  would  seem  to 
-*-  have  obtained  recognition  among  all  races  from  the  earliest  ages. 
It  is  not  venturing  beyond  limits  to  assert  that  a  book  could  be  written 
upon  this  phase  of  the  subject  alone.  It  is  not  essential  to  incorporate 
here  all  that  could  be  compiled,  but  enough  is  submitted  to  substan- 
tiate the  statement  just  made,  and  to  cover  every  line  of  inquiry. 

It  might  perhaps  be  well  to  consider  whether  or  not  the  constant 
use  of  and  familiarity  with  human  urine  and  ordure  in  houses,  arts, 
and  industries  of  various  kinds  would  have  a  tendency  to  blunt  the 
sensibilities  of  rude  races,  so  that  in  their  rites  we  could  look  for  the 
introduction  of  these  loathsome  materials ;  just  as  we  find  that  all 
those  races  whose  women  are  allowed  to  go  naked  place  a  very  slight 
value  upon  chastity. 

"It  certainly  is  not  possible  to  separate  the  religious  uses  of  urine 
from  its  industrial  and  medical  uses.  .  .  .  Probably  nearly  everywhere 
it  has  been  the  first  soap  known.  Does  not  this  aspect  of  the  matter 
need  to  be  insisted  on,  even  from  the  religious  point  of  view?  ...  In 
England  and  France,  and  probably  elsewhere,  the  custom  of  washing 
the  hands  in  urine,  with  an  idea  of  its  softening  and  beautifying  in- 
fluence, still  subsists  among  ladies,  and  I  have  known  those  who  con- 
stantly made  water  on  their  hands  with  this  idea."  —  (Havelock  Ellis, 
"  Contemporary  Science  Series,"  London,  Personal  letter.) 

TANNING. 

The  inhabitants  of  Kodiak  employ  urine  in  preparing  the  skins 
of  birds,  according  to  Lisiansky.  —  ("  Voyage  round  the  World," 
London,  1814,  p.  214.) 

"  Les  gants,  articles  de  grand  luxe,  et  de  haute  elegance,  faits  pour 
recouvrir  de  blanches  mains  et  des  bras  dodus,  sont  imbibe  d'un  jaune 

12 


17.8  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS.. 

d'oenf  largement  additionne  dudit  liquide  ambre."  —  ("  Les  Primitifs," 
Kechis,  p.  72.) 

By  the  Eskimo  urine  is  preserved  for  use  in  tanning  skins,*  while 
its  employment  in  the  preparation  of  leather,  in  both  Europe  and 
America,  is  too  well  understood  to  require  any  reference  to  authorities. 

The  Kioways  of  the  Great  Plains  soaked  their  buffalo  hides  in  urine 
to  make  them  soft  and  flexible.* 

Urine  is  employed  by  the  Tchuktchi  of  Siberia  "  in  curing  or  tanning 
skins."  —  ("  In  the  Lena  Delta,"  Melville,  Boston,  Mass.,  1885,  p.  318.) 

Sauer  says  that  the  Yakuts  tan  deer  and  elk  skins  with  cow-dung.  — 
("Expedition  to  the  North  parts  of  Russia,"  London,  1802,  p.  131. 

Dung  is  used  in  tanning  by  the  Bongo  of  the  upper  Nile  region.  — 
(See  Schweinfurth,  "Heart  of  Africa,"  London,  1878,  vol.  i.  p.  134.) 

Bernal  Diaz,  in  his  enumeration  of  the  articles  for  sale  in  the 
"tianguez"  or  mai'ket-places  of  Tcnochtitlan,  uses  this  expression: 
"  I  must  also  mention  human  excrements,  which  were  exposed  for  sale 
in  canoes  lying  in  the  canals  near  this  square,  which  is  used  for  the 
tanning  of  leather ;  for,  according  to  the  assurances  of  the  Mexicans, 
it  is  impossible  to  tan  well  without  it." —  (Bernal  Diaz,  "Conquest  of 
Mexico,"  London,  1844,  vol.  i.  p.  236.) 

The  same  use  of  ordure  in  tanning  bear-skins  can  be  found  among 
the  nomadic  Apaches  of  Arizona,  although,  preferentially,  they  use  the 
ordure  of  the  animal  itself. 

G6mara,  who  also  tabulated  the  articles  sold  in  the  Mexican  mar- 
kets, does  not  mention  ordure  in  direct  terms;  his  words  are  more 
vague:  "All  these  things  which  I  speak  of,  with  many  that  I  do  not 
know,  and  others  about  which  I  keep  silent,  are  sold  in  this  market  of 
the  Mexicans."  * 

Urine  figures  as  the  mordant  for  fixing  the  colors  of  blankets  and 
other  woollen  fabrics  woven  by  the  Navajoes  of  New  Mexico,  by  the 
Moquis  of  Arizona,  by  the  Zufiis  and  other  Pueblos  of  the  Southwest, 

1  They  also  keep  urine  in  tubs  in  their  huts  for  use  in  dressing  deer  and  seal 
skins.  (Mans  Egede  ;  also  quoted  in  Richardson's  "Polar  Regions, "  Edinburgh, 
1861,  p.  304. )  The  same  custom  has  been  noted  in  Alaska.  The  same  thing 
mentioned  by  Egcde's  grand-nephew,  Hans  Egede  Saab3'e.  ("  Greenland,"  London, 
1816,  p.  6.) 

2  The  whole  process  was  carefully  observed  by  Captain  Robert  G.  Carter,  4th 
Cavalry,  U.  S.  Army. 

'  "Tod.is  estas  cosas  que  digo  y  muchas  que  no  s6  y  otras  que  callo  se  venden 
en  este  mercado  destos  de  Mejico."  —  (Gomara,  "  Historia  de  la  Conquista  de 
Mejico,"  p.  349.) 


URINE   AND   GRDURE   IN   INDUSTRIES.  179 

by  the  Araucanians  of  Chili,  by  Mexicans,  Peruvians,  by  some  of  the 
tribes  of  Afghanistan,  and  other  nations,  by  all  of  whom  it  is  carefully 
preserved. 

BLEACHING. 

"Eoman  fullers  used  human  urine  in  their  business,  and  Pliny  says 
it  was  noticed  that  they  never  suffered  from  gout."  —  (Pliny,  "  Natural 
History,"  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  3  :  Bohn). 

Urine  has  also  been  employed  as  a  detergent  in  cleaning  wool.  — 
(Encyclopaedia  Britanuica,  article  "  Bleaching.") 

DYEING. 

Urine  is  used  in  dyeing  by  the  people  of  Ounalashka,  according  to 
Langsdorff,  "  Voyages  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  47) ;  also,  according  to  Sarytschew, 
in  "  Philip's  Voyages  "  (vol.  vi,  p.  72). 

The  same  use  of  it  has  been  attributed  to  the  Irish  by  Camden,  in 
"Brittania,"  edition  of  London,  1753,  vol.  ii.  p.  1419.  His  statement 
is  quoted  by  Buckle  :  "  In  1562,  O'Neal,  with  some  of  his  companions, 
came  to  London  and  astonished  the  citizens  by  their  hair  flowing  in 
locks  on  their  shoulders,  on  which  were  yellow  surplices,  dyed  with 
saffron  or  stained  with  urine."  —  ("  Commonplace  Book,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  236.) 

"As  a  substitute  for  alum,  urine  was  employed."  —  ("Folk-Lore  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Germans,"  W.  J.  Hoffman,  M.  D.,  in  "Journal  of 
American  Folk-Lore,"    1889.) 

"  The  preparation  of  blue,  violet,  and  bluish-red  coloring  matters 
from  lichens  by  the  action  of  the  ammonia  of  stale  urine,  seems  to 
have  been  known  at  a  very  early  period  to  the  Mediterranean  peoples, 
and  the  existence,  down  almost  to  the  present  day,  of  such  a  knowl- 
edge in  the  more  remote  parts  of  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Scandinavia, 
renders  it  not  improbable  that  the  art  of  making  such  dyes  was  not 
unknown  to  the  northern  nations  of  Europe  also." —  ("  The  Manners 
and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Irish,"  Eugene  O'Curry,  introduction 
by  W.  K.  Sullivan,  London,  Dublin,  Edinburgh,  and  New  York,  1873, 
p.  450.) 

PLASTER. 

As  a  plaster  for  the  interior  of  dwellings,  cow-dung  has  been  used 
with  frequency ;  that  the  employment  of  the  ordure  of  an  animal  held 
sacred  by  so  many  peoples  has  a  religious  basis,  is  perhaps  too  much 
to  say,  but  it  will  be  shown,  further  on,  that  different  ordures  were 


180  SCATALOGIC    RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

kept  about  houses  to  ensure  good  luck  or  to  avert  the  maleficence 
of  witchcraft. 

Marco  Polo  has  the  following :  (In  Malabar)  "  there  are  some 
called  Gaui,  who  eat  such  oxen  as  die  of  themselves,  but  may  not  kill 
them,  and  daub  over  their  houses  with  cow-dung."  —  (Marco  Polo,  in 
Pinkerton,  vol.  vii.  p.  162.) 

The  huts  in  Senegal  were  plastered  "  with  cow-dung,  which  stunk 
abominably' ."  —  (Adamson,  "  Voyage  to  Senegal,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol. 
xvi.  p.   Gil.) 

"  The  cow-dung  basements  around  the  tents  "  of  the  Mongols  are 
spoken  of  by  Rev.  James  Gilmour. —  ("Among  the  Mongols,"  London, 
1883,  p.  176.) 

"  A  floor  is  next  made  of  soft  tufa  and  cow-dung."  —  (Livingston, 
"Zambesi,"  London,  1805,  p.  293.) 

Animal  dung  is  used  as  a  mortar  b}'  the  inhabitants  of  Turkey  in 
Asia  living  in  the  valley  of  the  Tigris.  —  (See  "  Assyrian  Discoveries," 
George  Smith,  New  York,  1876,  p.  82.) 

The  natives  of  the  White  jSile,  the  tribes  of  the  Bari,  make 
"a  cement  of  ashes,  cow-dung,  and  sand,"  with  which  "they  plaster 
the  floors  and  enclosures  about  their  houses."  —  ("  The  Albert  Xy- 
anza,"  Sir  Samuel  Baker,  Philadelphia,  1869,  p.  58.  See  the  same 
author  for  the  Latookas,  idem,  p.  135  ;  and  for  the  statement  that  the 
Obbos  plaster  enclosures,  walls,  and  floors  alike,  see  pp.  203,  262.) 

Pliny  tells  us  that  the  threshing-floors  of  the  Roman  farmers  were 
paved  with  cow-dung;  in  a  footnote  it  is  stated  that  the  same  rule 
obtains  in  France  to  this  day.  —  (Pliny,  lib.  Ixxviii.  cap.  71  :  Bohn). 

Horse-dung  was  considered  very  valuable  as  a  luting  for  chemical 
stills  and  furnaces.  —  (See  Schurig,  "  Chylologia,"  p.  815;  also,  as  a 
"  Digesting  medium,"  idem.) 

Of  the  Yakuts  of  Siberia  it  is  related  :  "  In  dirtiness  they  yield 
to  none  ;  for  a  gi*ave  author  assures  us  that  the  mortars  which  they 
use  for  bruising  their  dried  fish  are  made  of  cow-dung  hardened  by  the 
frost."  —  (Maltebrun,  "Universal  Geography,"  vol.  i.  p.  347.) 

"The  people  of  Jungeion  .  .  .  collected  the  dung  of  cows  and 
sheep  .  .  .  dried  it,  roasted  it  on  the  fire,  and  afte wards  used  it  for  a 
bed."  —  (Mungo  Park,  "  Travels  in  Africa,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi. 
p.  834.) 

"  The  vessels  in  which  they  (the  Yakuts)  stamp  their  dried  fish, 
Roots  and  Berries,  are  made  of  dried  Oxen  and  Cow's  dung."  —  (Van 
Straleuberg,  p.  382.) 


URINE  AND  ORDURE  IN   INDUSTRIES.  181 

The  Index  to  the  first  volume  of  Purchas  has  "Dung  bought  by 
sound  of  tabor,  p.  270,  1.  40 ;  "  and  "  Dung  of  Birds,  a  strange  report 
of  it ;  "  but  neither  of  these  could  be  found  in  the  main  portion  of 
the  volume. 

AS   A   CURE    FOR   TOBACCO. 

The  best  varieties  of  Tobacco  coming  from  America  were  arranged 
in  bunches,  tied  to  stakes,  and  suspended  in  privies,  in  order  that  the 
fumes  arising  from  the  human  ordure  and  urine  might  correct  the  cor- 
rupt and  noxious  principles  in  the  plant  in  the  crude  state.  —  (See 
iSchurig,  "Chylologia,"  p.  776.  "Ex  paxillo  aliquandiu  suspendere  iu 
Cloacis  Tabacum,"  etc.) 

"  I  heard  lately  from  good  authority  that,  iu  Havana,  the  female 
urine  is  used  in  cigar-manufacturing  as  a  good  maceration."  —  (Per- 
sonal letter  from  Dr.  Gustav  Jaeger,  Stuttgart,  August  29,  1888.) 

TO  RESTORE  THE  ODOR  OF  MUSK  AND  THE  COLOR  OP  CORAL. 

The  odor  of  musk  and  the  color  of  coral  could  be  restored  by  sus- 
pending them  in  a  privy  for  a  time.  —  (See  Dauielus  Beckherius, 
"  Medicus  Microcosmus,"  London,  1600,  p.  113.) 

"  Paracelsus  scil.  mediante  digestione  stercus  humanum  ad  odorem 
Moschi  redigere  voluit." — (Etmuller,  "Opera  Omnia,"  Comment. 
Ludovic.  Lyons,  1690,  vol.  ii.  pp.  171,  172.) 

"  Moschi  odorem  deperditum  restitui  posse,  si  in  loco  aliquo,  ubi 
urina  et  excremeuta  alvina  putrescunt,  detineatur,  apud  autores 
legimus."  — (Schurig,  "  Chylologia,"  p.  768.) 

"Fit,  ut  Moschus  longo  tempore  aemittat  odorem,  quern  tamen 
recuperat  si  irroretur  cum  pueri  urina,  vel  si  suspendatur  in  latrina 
humana."  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  p.  276.) 

CHEESE    MANUFACTURE. 

"  A  storekeeper  in  Berlin  was  punished  some  years  ago  for  having 
used  the  urine  of  young  girls  with  a  view  to  make  his  cheese  richer 
and  more  piquant.  Notwithstanding,  people  went,  bought  and  ate 
his  cheese  with  delight.  What  may  be  the  cause  of  all  these  foolish 
and  mysterious  things'?  In  human  urine  is  the  Anthropin." — (Per- 
sonal letter  from  Dr.  Gustav  Jaeger,  Stuttgart,  August  29,  1888.) 

"  En  certaines  fermes  de  Suisse  on  se  sert,  m-a-t'on-dit,  de  Purine 
pour  activer  la  fermentation  de  certaines  fromages  qu'on  y  plonge."  — 


182  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

(Personal  letter  from  Dr.  Bernard  to  Captain  Bourke,  dated  Cannes, 
irance,  July  7,  1888.) 

Whether  or  not  the  use  of  human  urine  to  ripen  cheese  originated  in 
the  ancient  practice  of  employing  excrementitious  matter  to  preserve 
the  products  of  the  dairy  from  the  maleficence  of  witches ;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  whether  or  not  such  an  employment  as  an  agent  to  defeat 
the  efforts  of  the  witches  be  traceable  to  the  fact  that  stale  urine  was 
originally  the  active  ferment  to  hasten  the  coagulation  of  the  milk 
would   scarcely  be   worth  discussion. 

OPIUM   ADULTERATION. 

The  smoker  of  opium  little  imagines  that,  in  using  his  deadly  drug, 
he  is  often  smoking  an  adulterated  article,  the  adulterant  being  hen 
manure ;  he  is  thus  placed  on  a  par  with  the  American  Indian  smoking 
the  dried  dung  of  the  buffalo,  and  the  African  smoking  that  of  the 
antelope  or  the  rhinoceros. 

EGG-HATCHING. 

In  the  description  of  the  province  of  Quang-tong,  it  is  stated  that 
the  Chinese  hatch  eggs  "  in  the  Oven,  or  in  Dung."  —  (Du  Halde, 
"History  of  China,"  London,  1741,  vol.  i.  p.  238.)  See  the  same 
statement  made  in  Purchas,  vol.  i.  270. 

In  China  "  their  fish  is  chiefly  nourished  with  the  dung  of  Oxen  that 
greatly  fatteth  it." —  (Perera,  in  Purchas,  vol.  i.  p.  205.) 

TAXES    ON    URINE. 

The  Roman  emperors  imposed  a  tax  and  tolls  upon  urine  because  of 
its  usefulness  in  many  things.  —  ("Dreck  Apotheke,"  Paullini,  p.  8. 
See  previous  statements  in  this  volume  and  consult  Suetonius  "  Ves- 
pasian.") 

CHRYSOCOLLON. 

There  was  a  cement  for  fixing  the  precious  metals,  which  cement  was 
known  as  "  Chrysocollon,"  and  was  made  with  much  ceremony  from 
the  urine  "of  an  innocent  boy."  There  are  various  descriptions,  but 
the  following,  while  brief,  contain  all  the  material  points. 

Galen  describes  this  Chrysocollon,  or  Gold-Glue,  as  prepared  by  some 
physicians  from  the  urine  of  a  boy,  who  had  to  void  it  into  a  mortar 
of  red  copper  while  a  pestle  of  the  same  material  was  in  motion,  which 
urine  carefully  exposed  to  the  sun  until  it  had  acquired  the  thickness 


URINE  AND   ORDURE   IN   INDUSTRIES.  18$ 

of  honey,  was  considered  capable  of  soldering  gold  and  of  curing  obsti- 
nate diseases:  "Attamen  medicameutum  quod  ex  urina  pueri  confice- 
tur  quod  quidam  vocant  chrysocollon,  quia  eo  ad  auri  glutinationem 
utuntur,  ad  ulcera  difficilia  sanatu  optimum  esse  assero  fit  autem  id 
figura  phiali  confecto  niortario  ex  aire  rubro  habentem  pistillum  ejusdem 
materiie  in  quod  mejente  puero  pistillum  circumages,  identidem,  ut 
uou  tantum  a  mortario  deradedet,  etc."  ("Opera  Omnia,"  Kuhn's 
edition,  vol.  xii.  pp.  286,  287.) 

Dioscorides  describes  the  manufacture  thus :  "  Quinetiam  ex  ea 
(i.  e.  'pueri  inuocentis  urina')  et  acre  cyprio  idoneum  ferrumiuando 
giutea  paratur."  —  ("Materia  Medica,"  Kuhn's  edition,  vol.  i.  p.  227 
et  seq.) 

If  a  boy's  urine  be  rubbed  up  in  a  copper  mortar  with  a  copper  pestle, 
it  makes  a  sort  of  mucilage  which  can  be  used  to  fasten  articles  of  gold 
together,  as  Sextus  Placitus  tells  us  :  "  Si  pueri  lotium  cupriuo  mor- 
tario et  cuprino  pistello  contritum  fuerit,  aurum  solidat."  —  ("  De 
Medicamentis  ex  Animalibus,"  edition  of  Lyons,  1537,  pages  not  num- 
bered, article,  "  De  Puello  et  Puella  Virgine.") 

The  definition  given  by  Avicenna,  the  Arabian  authority,  is :  "  Quae 
fit  ex  urina  infantium  mota  in  mortario  aero  cum  aceto  in  sole."  — 
(Vol.  i.  p.  336,  a  34  et  seq.) 

We  also  read  of  an  "  Alchymical  Water,"  called  "  Diana,"  for  trans- 
muting metals  into  gold  and  silver;  it  was  believed  that  this  prepara- 
tion was  efficacious  "  ad  mutandum  Merciirium  in  Solem  vel  Lunani." 
("  Sol "  was  gold,  "  Luna  "  was  silver ;  see  notes  from  Paracelsus  be- 
low.) This  "  Diana "  was  employed  in  the  preparation  of  "  Crocus 
Martis,"  as  well  as  in  that  of  "  Oleum  Martis,"  for  giving  metals  the 
color  of  gold,  for  polishing  gold  plate,  for  giving  a  fine  temper  to  the 
best  iron  or  steel  implements,  and  for  making  the  "  Chrysocolla  "  just 
described.  —  ("Medicus  Microcosmus,"  Beckherius,  pp.  103-108.) 

Paracelsus,  speaking  of  the  metals  says  :  "  Sol,  that  is  Gold  ;  Luna, 
that  is  silver;  Venus,  that  is  Copper;  Mercury,  that  is  Quicksilver; 
Saturnus,  that  is  Lead;  Jupiter,  that  is  Tinne ;  Mars,  that  is  Iron."  — 
("The  Secrets  of  Physicke,"  English  translation,  London,  1633,  p. 
117.) 

FOR   REMOVING    INK    STAINS. 

Human  urine  was  considered  efficacious  in  the  removal  of  ink-spots. 
—  (See  Pliny,  Bohn,  lib.  v.  and  lib,  xxviii.) 


184  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 


AS    AN    ARTICLE    OF    JEWELRY. 

Fossilized  excrement  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of  jewelry,  under 
the  name  of  "  Coprolite." 

Lapland  women  carry  a  little  case  made  from  the  bark  of  the  birch 
tree,  "  which  they  usually  carry  under  the  girdle  "  in  which  is  to  be 
found  reindeer  dung,  not  as  an  amulet  but  to  aid  in  weaning  the  young 
reindeer  by  smearing  the  udders  of  the  dams."  —  (See  Leems'  "  Account 
of  Danish  Lapland,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  i.  p.  405.) 

But,  from  other  sources,  we  have  learned  that  the  Laps  attached  the 
most  potent  influences  to  ordure  and  urine  believing  that  their  rein- 
deer could  be  bewitched,  that  vessels  could  be  hastened  or  retarded  in 
their  course,  etc.,  by  the  use  of  such  materials.  Several  examples  of 
this  belief  are  given  in  this  volume ;  see  under  "  Witchcraft." 

TATTOOING. 

Laugsdorff  noticed  that  urine  entered  into  the  domestic  economy  of 
the  natives  of  Ounalashka.  He  tells  us  that  the  tattooing  was  per- 
formed with  "  a  sort  of  coal  dust  mixed  with  urine,  rubbed  in  "  the  punc- 
tures made  in  the  skin  ("  Voyages,"  vol.  ii.  p.  40).  That  the  tattooing 
with  which  savages  decorate  their  bodies  has  a  significance  beyond  a 
simple  personal  ornamentation  cannot  be  gainsaid,  although  the  degree 
of  its  degeneration  from  a  primitive  religious  symbolism  may  now  be 
impossible  to  determine.  Even  if  regarded  in  no  other  light  than  as  a 
means  of  clan-distinction,  there  is  the  suggestion  of  obsolete  ceremonial, 
because  the  separation  into  castes  and  gentes  is  in  every  case  described 
V)y  the  savages  concerned  as  having  been  performed  at  the  behest  of  some 
one  of  their  innumerable  deities,  who  assigned  to  each  clan  its  appro- 
priate "  totem."  Clan  marks  may  be  represented  in  the  tattooing,  the 
conventional  signs  of  primitive  races  not  having  yet  been  sufficiently  in- 
vestigated ;  for  example,  among  the  Apaches  three  marks  radiating  out 
from  a  single  stem  represent  a  turkey,  that  being  the  form  of  the  bird's 
foot.  At  the  dances  of  the  Indians  of  the  pueblo  of  Santo  Domingo, 
on  the  Rio  Grande,  New  Mexico,  the  bodily  decorations  were,  in  nearly 
every  case,  associated  with  the  clan  "  totem  ; "  but  this  fact  never 
would  have  been  suspected  unless  explained  by  one  of  the  initiated. 
In  one  of  the  dances  of  the  Moquis  the  members  of  the  Tejon  or  Bad- 
ger clan  appeared  with  white  stripes  down  their  faces ;  that  is  one  of 
the  marks  of  the  badger,  as  they  explained. 


UKINE  AND   ORDURE   IN   INDUSTRIES.  185 

The  author  does  not  wish  to  say  much  on  this  topic,  since  his  atten- 
tion was  not  called  to  it  until  a  comparatively  late  period  in  his  investi- 
gations ;  but  he  was  surprised  to  learn  that  the  Apaches,  among  whom 
he  then  was,  although  marking  themselves  very  slightly,  almost  in- 
variably made  use  of  an  emblemism  of  a  sacred  character ;  moreover, 
it  was  very  generally  the  work  of  some  one  of  the  "  medicine  men." 

The  tattooing  of  the  people  of  Otaheite  seen  by  Cook  was  surmised 
by  him  to  have  a  religious  significance,  as  it  presented  in  many  in- 
stances "  squares,  circles,  crescents,  and  ill-designed  representations  of 
men  and  dogs."  (In  Hawkesworth's  "  Voyages,"  London,  1773,  vol.  ii. 
p.  190.)  Every  one  of  these  people  was  tattooed  upon  reaching  majority. 
(Idem,  p.  191.)  It  is  stated  that  certain  chiefs  in  New  Zealand,  un- 
able to  write  their  names  to  a  document  presented  to  them  for  signa- 
ture drew  lines  like  those  tattooed  upon  their  faces  and  noses." —  (See 
"Voyage  of  Adventure  and  Beagle,"  London,  1839,  vol.  ii.  p.  586.) 

Among  the  Dyaks  of  Borneo  "all  the  married  women  are  tattooed 
on  the  hands  and  feet,  and  sometimes  on  the  thighs.  The  decoration 
is  one  of  the  privileges  of  matrimony,  and  is  not  permitted  to  unmar- 
ried girls." —  ("Head-Hunters  of  Borneo,"  Carl  Bock,  London,  1881, 
p.  67.) 

A  recent  writer  has  the  following  to  say  on  this  subject  :  "  The  tat- 
too marks  make  it  possible  to  discover  the  remote  connection  between 
clans  ;  aiad  this  token  has  such  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  mind 
that  there  is  no  feud  between  tribes  which  are  tattooed  in  the  same  way. 
The  type  of  the  marks  must  be  referred  to  the  animal  kingdom ;  yet 
we  cannot  discover  any  tradition  or  myth  which  relates  to  the  custom. 
There  is  no  reason  for  asserting  that  there  is  any  connection  between 
the  tattoo  marks  and  Toteraism,  although  I  am  personally  disposed  to 
think  that  this  is  sometimes  the  case.  The  tattooing,  which  usually 
consists  in  the  imitation  of  some  animal  forms,  may  lead  to  the  wor- 
ship of  such  animals  as  religious  objects."  ("  The  Primitive  Famil}'," 
C.  N.  Starcke,  Ph.  D.,  New  York,  1889,  p.  42.)  Here  is  an  example 
of  putting  the  cart  before  the  horse  ;  in  all  cases  investigation  will  show 
that  the  animal  was  a  god,  and  for  that  reason  was  imprinted  on  the 
person  of  the  worshipper  as  a  vow  of  supplication  or  prayer. 

In  another  place  the  same  writer  says  that  tattooing  had  "  to  be 
performed  by  a  priest."  —  (Idem,  p.  241.) 

The  religious  element  in  Totemism  has  been  plainly  revealed  by  W. 
Robertson  Smith  in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  article  "  Sacrifice,"  and 
by  James  G.  Frazer,  M.A.,  in  his  "  Totemism,"  Edinburgh,  1887. 


186  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

Andrew  Lang  devotes  several  chapters  to  the  subject  ("  Myth,  Ritual, 
and  Religion,"  London,  1887,  vol.  i.  cap.  3).  He  says  of  the  Australian 
tribes  :  "  There  is  some  evidence  that  in  certain  tribes  the  wiugong  or 
totem  of  each  man  is  indicated  by  a  tattooed  representation  of  it  upon 
liis  flesh  "  (p.  G5).  On  another  page,  quoting  from  Long's  "  Voyages," 
1791,  he  says:  "  Tlie  ceremony  of  adoption  was  painful,  beginning 
with  a  feast  of  dog's  flesh,  followed  by  a  Turkish  bath,  and  a  prolonged 
process  of  tattooing."  —  (Idem,  p.  71.) 

A  traveller  of  considerable  intelligence  comments  in  these  terms 
upon  the  bodily  ornamentation  of  the  Burmese  :  — 

"  Burmah  is  the  land  of  the  tattooed  man.  ...  In  my  visit  to 
the  great  prison  here,  which  contains  more  than  three  thousand  men, 
I  saw  six  thousand  tattooed  legs.  .  .  .  The  origin  of  the  custom  I 
have  not  been  able  to  find  out.  It  is  here  the  Burmese  sign  of 
manhood,  and  there  is  as  much  ceremony  about  it  as  there  is  about 
the  ear-piercing  of  girls  which  chronicles  their  entrance  upon  woman- 
hood. Tliere  are  professional  tattooers,  who  go  about  with  books 
of  designs.  .  .  .  The  people  are  superstitious  about  it ;  and  certain 
kinds  of  tattooing  are  supposed  to  ward  off"  disease.  One  kind 
wards  off  the  snake-bite,  and  another  prevents  a  man  from  drown- 
ing." —  (Frank  G.  Carpenter,  in  the  "  Bee,"  Omaha,  !Xebraska,  May 
19,  1889.) 

Surgeon  Corbusier,  U.  S.  Army,  says  of  the  Apache-Yumas  of  Arizona 
Territory,  that  "  the  married  women  are  distinguished  by  seven  nar- 
row blue  lines  running  from  the  lower  lip  down  to  the  chin.  .  .  . 
Tattooing  is  practised  by  the  women,  rarely  by  the  men.  ...  A 
young  woman,  when  anxious  to  become  a  mother,  tattooes  the  figure  of 
a  child  on  her  forehead."  —  (In  the  "American  Antiquarian,"  Novem- 
ber, 1886.) 

The  "sectarial  marks"  of  the  Hindus  are  possibly  vestiges  of  a  for- 
mer practice  of  tattooing.  Coleman  ("  Mythology  of  the  Hindus," 
London,  1832,  p.  165)  has  a  reference  to  them. 

Squier,  in  his  monograph  upon  "  Manobosho,"  in  "  American  His- 
torical Review,"  1848,  says  that  the  Mandans  have  a  myth  in  which 
occurs  the  name  of  a  god,  "  Tattooed  Face." 

Alice  Oatman  stated  distinctly  that  "  she  was  tattooed  by  two  of 
their  (Mojaves)  physicians,"  and  "  marked,  not  as  they  marked  their 
women,  but  as  they  marked  their  captives."  Be  that  as  it  may,  the 
four  lines  on  her  chin,  as  well  as  can  be  discerned  from  the  indifferent 
woodcut,  are   the  same  as   can   be  seen   upon  the  chins  of  Mojave 


URINE   AND   ORDURE  IN  INDUSTRIES.  187 

women  to-day.  —  (See  Stratton's  "  Captivity  of  the  Oatman  Girls," 
San  Francisco,  1857,  pp.  151,  152.) 

Maltebrun  says  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Island  of  Formosa  :  "  Their 
skin  is  covered  with  indelible  marks,  representing  trees,  animals,  and 
flowers  of  grotesque  forms." — ("Universal  Geography,"  American 
edition,  Philadelphia,  1832,  vol.  ii.  lib.  43,  p.  79,  article  "China.") 

"The  practice  of  marking  the  skin  with  the  figures  of  animals, 
flowers,  or  stars,  which  was  in  existence  before  the  time  of  Mahomet, 
has  still  left  traces  among  the  Bedouin  women."  —  (Idem,  vol.  i.  lib.  30, 
p.  395.) 

Speaking  of  the  Persian  ladies,  the  same  authority  says  :  "  They 
stain  their  bodies  with  the  figures  of  trees,  birds,  and  beasts,  sun,  moon, 
and  stars."  —  (Idem,  vol.  i.  lib.  33,  p.  428,  article  "  Persia.") 

In  the  "  Transactions  of  the  Ethnological  Society  of  London," 
vol.  vi.,  it  is  stated  that  the  "  Oraon  boys  (India)  are  marked  when 
children  on  the  arms  by  a  rather  severe  process  of  puncturation,  which 
they  consider  it  manly  to  endure." 

"  Mojave  girls,  after  they  marry,  tattoo  the  chin  with  vertical  blue 
lines." — (Palmer,  quoted  by  H.  H.  Bancroft  in  "Native  Races," 
vol.  i.  p.  480.) 

In  the  cannibal  feast  of  the  Tupis  of  the  Amazon,  Southey  says,  "  The 
chief  of  the  clan  scarified  the  arms  of  the  Matador  above  the  elbow, 
so  as  to  leave  a  permanent  mark  there  ;  and  this  was  the  Star  and 
Gai'ter  of  their  ambition,  the  highest  badge  of  honor.  There  were 
some  who  cut  gashes  in  their  breast,  arms,  and  thighs  on  these  occa- 
sions, and  rubbed  a  black  powder  in,  which  left  an  indelible  stain."  — 
(Quoted  by  Herbert  Spencer  in  "Descriptive  Sociology.") 

'*  A  savage  man  meets  a  savage  maid.  She  does  not  speak  his 
language,  nor  he  hers.  How  are  they  to  know  whether,  according 
to  the  marriage  laws  of  their  race,  they  are  lawful  mates  for  each 
other  1  This  important  question  is  settled  by  an  inspection  of  their 
tattoo  marks.  If  a  Thlinkeet  man,  of  the  Swan  stock,  meets  an 
Iroquois  maid,  of  the  Swan  stock,  they  cannot  speak  to  each  other, 
and  the  *  gesture  language '  is  cumbrous.  But  if  both  are  tattooed 
with  the  Swan,  then  the  man  knows  that  this  daughter  of  the  Swan 
is  not  for  him.  .  .  .  The  case  of  the  Thlinkeet  man  and  the  Iroquois 
maid  is  extremely  unlikely  to  occur,  but  I  give  it  as  an  example  of  the 
practical  use  among  savages  of  representative  art."  —  ("  Custom  and 
Myth,"  Andrew  Lang,  New  York.  1885,  p.  292.) 

"  Tattooing  is  fetichistic  in  origin.     Among  all  the  tribes,  almost 


188  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

every  Indian  has  the  image  of  an  animal  tattooed  on  his  breast  or  arm, 
which  can  charm  away  an  evil  spirit  or  prevent  harm  to  them."  — 
(Dorman,  "Primitive  Superstition,"  New  York,  1881,  p.  15G.) 

"  The  Eskimo  wife  has  her  face  tattooed  with  lamp-black,  and  is 
regarded  as  a  matron  in  society." — ("  Schwatka's  Search,"  William 
II.  Gilder,  Xew  York,  1881,  p.  250.)  "I  never  saw  any  attempt  at 
hgure  or  animal  drawing  for  personal  ornamentation.  The  forms  are 
generally  geometrical  in  design  and  symmetrical  in  arrangement.  .  .  . 
None  of  the  men  are  tattoed."  —  (Idem,  p.  251.) 

"  The  Mojaves  of  the  Rio  Colorado  tattoo,  but  the  explanation  of 
the  marks  was  exceedingly  vague  and  unsatisfactory.  The  women, 
upon  attaining  puberty,  are  tattooed  upon  the  chin,  and  there  seem  to 
be  four  different  patterns  followed,  probably  representing  as  many 
different  phratric  or  clan  systems  in  former  times."  —  (See  the  author's 
article  in  the  "  Journal  of  American  Folk- Lore,"  Cambridge,  Mass., 
July-September,  1888,  entitled  "Notes  on  the  Cosmogony  and  The- 
ogony  of  the  Mojaves.") 

Swan,  in  his  notes  upon  the  Indians  of  Cape  Flattery,  contents 
himself  with  observing  that  their  tattooing  is  performed  with  coal  and 
human  urine. 

"  In  order  that  the  ghost  may  travel  tlie  ghost  road  in  safety,  it  is 
necessary  for  each  Lakota  during  his  life  to  be  tattooed  either  in  the 
middle  of  the  forehead  or  on  the  wrists.  In  that  event,  his  spirit  will 
go  directly  to  the  '  Many  Lodges.'  .  .  .  An  old  woman  sits  in  the 
road,  and  she  examines  each  ghost  that  passes.  If  she  cannot  find 
the  tattoo-mai'ks  on  the  forehead,  wrists,  or  chin,  the  unhappy  ghost 
is  pushed  from  a  cloud  or  cliff,  and  falls  to  this  world."  —  (Dr.  J. 
Owen  Dorsey,  in  the  "  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore,"  April,  1889.) 

Of  the  islands  of  the  South  Pacific,  Kotzebue  says,  "  I  believe  that 
tattooing  in  these  islands  is  a  religious  custom ;  at  least,  they  refused 
it  to  several  of  our  gentlemen  at  Otdia,  assuring  them  that  it  could 
only  be  done  in  Egerup."  —  ("Voyages."  vol.  ii.  pp.  113,  135, 
London,   1821.) 

"  Tattooing  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Polynesians,  but  this 
'dermal  art'  is  certainly  carried  by  them  to  an  extent  which  is  un- 
equalled 'l)y  any  other  people.  ;  .  .  It  is  practised  by  all  classes.  .  .  . 
By  the  vast  number  of  them  it  is  adopted  simply  as  a  personal  orna- 
ment, though  there  are  some  grounds  for  believing  that  the  tattoo 
may,  in  a  few  cases  and  to  a  small  extent,  be  looked  upon  as  a  badge 
of  mourning  or  a  memento  of  a  departed  friend.     Like  everything 


URINE   AND   ORDUKE   IN   INDUSTRIES.  189 

else  in  Polynesia,  its  origin  is  related  in  a  legend  which  credits  its 
invention  to  the  gods,  and  says  it  was  first  practised  by  the  children 
of  Tharoa,  their  principal  deity.  The  sons  of  Tharoa  and  Apouvarou 
were  the  gods  of  tattooing,  and  their  images  were  kept  in  the  temples 
of  those  who  practised  the  art  as  a  profession,  and  to  them  petitions 
are  offered  that  the  figures  might  be  handsome,  attract  attention,  and 
otlierwise  accomplish  the  purpose  for  which  they  submitted  themselves 
to  this  painful  operation.  ...  To  show  any  signs  of  suffering  under 
the  operation  is  looked  upon  as  disgraceful." — ("World,"  New  York, 
May  10,  1890,  quoting  from  "The  Peoples  of  the  World.") 

"  In  the  Tonga  and  Samoan  Islands,  the  young  men  were  all  tat- 
tooed upon  reaching  manhood ;  before  this,  they  could  not  think  of 
marriage.  .  .  .  Tattooing  is  still  kept  up  to  some  extent,  and  is  a 
regular  profession.  .  .  .  There  are  two  gods,  patrons  of  tattooing,  — 
Taema  and  Tilfanga."  —  (See  Turner's  '"'  Samoa.") 

"One  of  the  features  of  the  Initiation  among  the  Port  Lincoln 
tribe  was  the  tattooing  of  the  young  man  and  the  conferring  of  a 
new  name  upon  him." — ("The  Native  Tribes  of  South  Australia," 
Adelaide,  1879,  received  through  the  kindness  of  the  Eoyal  Society, 
New  South  Wales,  T.  B.  Kyngdon,  Secretary.) 

It  is  well  to  observe  that  each  tribe  in  a  given  section  has  not  only 
its  own  pattern  of  tattooing,  but  its  own  ideas  of  the  parts  of  the 
person  to  which  the  tattooing  should  be  applied.  Thus,  among  the 
Indians  of  the  northwest  coast  of  British  Columbia,  "  Tattooings  are 
found  on  arms,  breast,  back,  legs,  and  feet  among  the  Haidas;  on 
arms  and  feet  among  the  Tshimshian,  Kwakiutl,  and  Bilqula;  on 
breast  and  arms  among  the  Nootka ;  on  the  jaw  among  the  coast 
Salish  women." — ("Report  on  the  Northwestern  Tribes  of  Canada," 
Franz  Boas,  in  "  Trans.  Brit.  Assoc.  Advancement  of  Science,"  New- 
castle-upon-Tyne meeting,  1889,  p.  12.) 

Sullivan  states  that  the  custom  of  tattooing  continued  in  England 
and  Ireland  down  to  the  seventh  century;  this  was  the  tattooing  with 
woad.  —  (See  his  Introduction  to  O'Curry's  "  Manners  and  Customs 
of  the  Ancient  Irish,"  p.  455.) 

The  Inuits  believe  that  "les  femmes  bien  tatouees"  are  sure  of 
felicity  in  the  world  to  come.  —  (See  "  Les  Primitifs,"  Reclus,  Paris, 
1885,  p.  120.) 

"  Although  the  practice  of  the  art  is  so  ancient  that  we  have 
evidence  of  its  existence  in  prehistoric  times,  and  that  the  earliest 
chronicles  of  our  race  contain  references  to  it,  yet  the  term  itself  is 


190  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

comparatively  modem.  .  .  .  The  universality  as  well  as  the  great 
antiquity  of  the  custom  has  been  shown  by  a  French  author,  Ernest 
Berchon,  'Histoire  Mcdicale  du  Tatouage,'  Paris,  18G9,  which  begins 
with  a  quotation  from  Leviticus  xiv.,  which  in  the  English  version 
reads  thus:  'Ye  shall  not  make  any  cuttings  in  your  flesh  for  the 
dead,  nor  print  any  marks  upon  you.'  Don  Calmet,  in  commenting 
upon  this  passage,  says  that  the  Hebrew  literally  means  '  a  writing  of 
spots.'  Many  Italians  have  been  tattooed  at  Loretto.  Around  this 
famous  shrine  are  seen  professional  tattooers,  '  Marcatori,'  who  charge 
from  half  to  three  quarters  of  a  lire  for  producing  a  design  commemo- 
rative of  the  pilgrim's  visit  to  the  shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Loretto.  A 
like  profitable  industry  is  pursued  at  Jerusalem  .  .  .  Religion  has 
some  influence  (in  the  matter  of  tattooing)  from  its  tendency  to  pre- 
serve ancient  customs.  At  Loretto  and  Jerusalem  tattooing  is  almost 
a  sacred  observance."  —  ("  Tattooing  among  Civilized  People,"  Dr. 
Robert  Fletcher,  Anthropological  Society,  Washington,  D.  C,  1883, 
pp.  4,  12,  and  26.) 

"  Father  Mathias  G.  says  that  in  Oceania  every  royal  or  princely 
family  has  a  family  of  tattooers  especially  devoted  to  their  service,  and 
that  none  other  can  be  permitted  to  produce  the  necessary  adorn- 
ment." —  (Idem,  p.  24.) 

"  Tatowiren,  Narbenzeichnen  und  Korperbemalen  "  (Tattooing,  Cica- 
tricial Marking  and  Body  Painting),  by  Wilhelm  Joest,  Berlin,  1887, 
a  superbly  illustrated  volume,  has  been  reviewed  by  Surgeon  Wash- 
ington ^latthews,  U.  S.  Army,  in  the  "  American  Anthropologist," 
Washington,  D.  C,  ending  in  these  words,  "The  author's  ojjinion, 
however,  that  '  tattooing  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  religion  of  sav- 
ages, but  is  only  a  sport  or  means  of  adornment,  which,  at  most,  has 
connection  with  the  attainment  of  maturity,'  is  one  which  will  not  be 
generally  concurred  in  by  those  who  have  studied  this  practice  as  it 
exists  among  our  American  savages." 

AGRICULTURE. 

In  the  interior  of  China,  travellers  relate  that  copper  receptacles 
along  the  roadsides  rescue  from  loss  a  fertilizer  whose  value  is  fully 
recognized. 

These  copper  receptacles  recall  the  "  Gastra,"  of  the  Romans,  already 
referred  to  under  the  heading  of  "  Latrines." 

"  Les  Chinois  fument  leurs  terres  autant  que  cela  est  en  leur  pou- 


URINE  AND   ORDURE   IN  INDUSTRIES.  191 

voir;  ils  eruploient  k  cet  usage  toutes  sortes  d'engrais,  mais  principale- 
ment  les  excrements  humains,  qu'ils  receiiillent  a  cet  effet  avec  grand 
8oin.  On  trouve  dans  les  villes,  dans  les  villages,  et  siir  les  routes,  des 
endroita  faits  expres  pour  la  commodity  des  passans,  et  dans  les  lieux 
ou  il  n'y  a  pas  de  semblables  facilites,  des  hommes  vont  ramasser  soir 
et  matin  les  ordures  et  les  mettent  dans  des  panniers  a  I'aide  d'un  croc 
de  fer  a  trois  pointes. 

"  On  traffique  dans  ce  pays  de  ce  qu'on  rejette  ailleurs  avec  horrcur 
et  celui  qui  re^oit  d'argent  en  France  pour  nettoyer  une  fosse,  en  donne 
au  contraire  en  Chine  pour  avoir  la  liberte  d'en  faire  autant.  Les  ex- 
crements sont  portes  dans  de  grands  trous  bien  mastiques,  faits  en  plein 
campagne,  dans  lesquels  on  les  delaye  avec  de  I'eau  et  de  I'urine  et  on 
les  repand  dans  les  champs  a  mesui'e  qu'on  a  besoin.  On  rencontre 
souvent  sur  la  riviere  a  Quanton  des  bateaux  d'une  forme  particuliere 
destines  au  transport  de  ces  ordures  et  ce  n'est  pas  sans  surprise  qu'on 
en  voit  les  conducteurs  etre  aussi  pen  affectes  qu'ils  le  paroissent  de 
I'odeur  agreable  d'une  pareille  marchandise."  —  ("Voyage  a  Pekin," 
De  Guignes,  Paris,  1808,  vol.  iii.  p.  322.) 

"  The  dung  of  all  animals  is  esteemed  above  any  other  kind  of 
manure.  It  often  becomes  an  article  of  commerce  in  the  shape  of 
small  cakes,  which  are  made  by  mixing  it  with  a  portion  of  loam  and 
earth,  and  then  thoroughly  drying  them.  These  cakes  are  even 
brought  from  Siam,  and  they  also  form  an  article  of  commerce  between 
the  provinces.  They  are  never  applied  dry,  but  are  diluted  with  as 
much  animal  water  as  can  be  procured."  —  ("Chinese  Repository," 
Canton,  1835,  vol.  iii.  p.  124.) 

"  They  even  make  sale  of  that  which  is  sent  privately  to  some  dis- 
tance in  Europe  at  midnight."  (Du  Halde,  "History  of  China," 
London,  1736,  vol.  it.  p.  126.)  This  statement  of  Father  Du  Halde 
can  be  compared  with  what  Bernal  Diaz  says  of  the  markets  of  the 
city  of  Mexico  at  the  time  of  Cortes  :  "  There  are  in  every  province  a 
great  number  of  people  who  carry  pails  for  this  purpose ;  in  some 
places  they  go  with  their  barks  into  the  canals  which  run  on  the  back 
side  of  the  houses,  and  fill  them  at  almost  every  hour  of  the  day."  — 
(Du  Halde,  idem,  p.  126.) 

Eosinus  Lentilius,  in  "  Ephemeridum  Physico-Medicorum,"  Leipsig, 
1694,  states  that  the  people  of  China  and  Java  buy  human  ordure  in 
exchange  for  tobacco  and  nuts.  This  was  probably  on  account  of  its 
value  in  manuring  their  fields,  which,  he  tells  us  (p.  170),  was  done 
three  times  a  year  with  human  ordure.     This  leads  him  to  make  the 


102  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

reflection  that  raan  runs  back  to  excrement,  —  "  Unde  stercua  in  ali- 
mentum  et  hoc  rursum  iu  stercus." 

"  The  J.apanese  manure  their  fields  with  human  ordure.  —  (See  Kem- 
per's "  History  of  Japan,"  iu  Pinkerton,  vol.  vii.  p.  698.) 

"  Yea,  the  dung  of  men  is  there  sold,  and  not  the  worse  merchandise, 
that  stink  yielding  sweet  wealth  to  some  who  goe  tabouring  up  and 
down  the  streetes  to  signifie  what  they  woulde  buy.  Two  or  three  hun- 
dred sayle  are  sometimes  freighted  with  this  lading  in  some  Port  of 
tlie  Sea  ;  whence  the  fatted  soyle  yields  three  Haruests  in  a  yeare."  — 
(Mendex  Pinto,  "Account  of  China,"  in  Purchas,  vol.  i.  p.  270.) 

"  Heaps  of  manure  in  every  field,  at  proper  distances,  ready  to  be 
scattered  over  the  corn." — (Turner,  "Embassy  to  Tibet,"  London, 
1806,  p.  62.) 

The  Persians  used  pigeon's  dung  "  to  smoak  their  melons."  —  (John 
Matthews  Eaton,  "  Treatise  on  Breeding  Pigeons,"  London,  no  date, 
pp.  39,  40,  quoting  from  Tavernier's  first  volume  of  '*  Persian 
Travels.") 

The  finest  variety  of  melon,  "the  sugar  melon,"  "cultivated  with 
the  greatest  care  with  the  dung  of  pigeons  kept  for  the  purpose,"  — 
("  Persia,"  Benjamin,  London,  1877,  p.  428.) 

Fosbroke  cites  Tavernier  as  saying  that  the  King  of  Persia  draws  a 
greater  revenue  from  "  the  dung  than  from  the  pigeons  "  belonging  to 
him  in  Ispahan.  The  Persians  are  said  to  live  on  melons  during  the 
summer  months,  and  "  to  nse  pigeons'  dung  in  raising  them."  —  ("  Cy- 
clopjedia  of  Antiquities,"  vol.  ii.) 

Human  manure  was  best  for  fields,  according  to  Pliny  (Nat.  Hist, 
lib.  17,  cap.  9).  Homer  relates  that  King  Laertes  laid  dung  upon  his 
fields.  Augeas  was  the  first  king  among  the  Greeks  so  to  use  it,  and 
''  Hercules  divulged  the  practice  thereof  among  the  Italians."  —  (Pliny, 
idem,  Holland's  translation.) 

Urine  was  considered  one  of  the  best  manures  for  vines.  "  Wounds 
and  incisions  of  trees  are  treated  also  with  pigeon's  dung  and  swine 
manure.  ...  If  pomegranates  are  acid,  the  roots  of  the  tree  are 
cleared,  and  swine's  dung  is  applied  to  them  ;  the  result  is  that  in  the 
first  year  the  fruit  will  have  a  vinous  flavor,  but  in  the  succeeding  one 
it  will  be  sweet.  .  .  .  The  pomegranates  should  be  watered  four  times 
a  year  with  a  mixture  of  human  urine  and  water.  .  .  .  For  the  purpose 
of  preventing  animals  from  doing  mischief  by  browsing  upon  the 
leaves,  they  should  be  sprinkled  with  cow-dung  each  time  after  rain." 
—  (Pliny,  lib.  17,  cap.  47.) 


URINE   AND   ORDURE   IN   INDUSTRIES.  193 

Schurig  calls  attention  to  the  great  value  attached  by  farmers  and 
viticulturists  to  human  ordure,  either  alone  or  mixed  with  that  of  ani- 
mals, in  feeding  hogs,  in  fertilizing  fields,  and  in  adding  richness  to 
the  soil  in  which  vines  grow.     See  "  Chylologia,"  p.  795. 

In  Germany  and  France,  during  the  past  century,  fanners  and 
gardeners  were  generally  careful  of  this  fertilizer. 

"  In  the  valley  of  Cuzco,  Peru,  and,  indeed,  in  almost  all  parts  of 
the  Sierra,  they  used  human  manure  for  the  maize  crops,  because 
they  said  it  was  the  best."  —  (Garcillasso  de  la  Vega,  "  Comentarios 
Eeales,"  Clement  C.  Markham's  translation,  in  Hakluyt  Society,  vol. 
xlv.  p.  11.) 

"  Conocian  tambien  el  use  de  estercolar  las  tierras  q»ie  ellos  llama- 
ban  Vunaltu."  —  ("  Historia  Civil  del  Reyno  de  Chile,"  Don  Juan 
Ignacio  Molina,  edition  of  Madrid,  1788,  p.  15.) 

Amelie  Eives,  in  her  story  "  Virginia  of  Virginia,"  relates  that  a  cer- 
tain family  of  Virginia  was  taken  down  with  the  typhoid  fever  on  ac- 
count of  "  making  fertilizer  in  the  cellar."  We  may  infer  that  this 
"  fertilizer  "  was  largely  composed  of  manure.  This  is  the  interview 
between  Mr.  Scott  and  Miss  Virginia  Herrick  :  "  *  The  tarryfied  fever 's 
a-ragin'  up  ter  Annesville,'  he  announced  presently.  Virginia  faced 
about  for  the  first  time.  'Is  it  1 "  she  asked  ;  *  who  's  down  1 ' 
'  jSTigh  all  of  them  Davises.  The  doctor  says  as  how  it 's  'count  o' 
their  makin'  fertilizer  in  their  cellar.' "  —  (In  "  Harper's  Magazine," 
New  York,  January,  1888,  p.  223.) 

Animal  manure  was  known  as  a  fertilizer  to  the  Jews  (2  Kings  ix.  37  ; 
Jeremiah  viii.  2,  ix.  22,  xvi.  4,  and  xsv,  33).  Human  manure  also. 
(Consult  McClintock  and  Strong's  Encyclopaedia,  article  "Dung.") 

URINE   USED    IN    THE   MANUFACTURE   OF   SALT. 

Gomara  explains  that,  mixed  with  palm-scrapings,  human  urine 
served  as  salt  to  the  Indians  of  Bogota,  —  "  Hacen  sal  de  raspadurvis 
de  palma  y  orinas  de  hombre."  —  ("  Hist,  de  las  Indias,"  p.  202.) 

Salt  is  made  by  the  Latookas  of  the  "White  Nile  from  the  ashes  of 
goat's  dung.  —  (See  "  The  Albert  Nyanza,"  Sir  Samuel  Baker,  Phila- 
delphia, 1869,  p.  224.) 

Pallas  states  that  the  Buriats  of  Siberia,  in  collecting  salts  from  the 
shores  of  certain  lakes  in  their  country,  are  careful  as  to  the  taste  of 
the  same  :  "  lis  n'emploient  que  ceux  qui  ont  un  gout  d'Urine  et  d'al- 
kali."     ("Voyages,"  Paris,  1793,  vol.  iv.  p.  246.)     This  shows  that 

13 


194  SCATALOGIC   RITES    OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

they  must  once  have  used  urine  for  salt,  as  so  many  other  tribes  have 
done. 

The  Siberians  gave  human  urine  to  their  reindeer :  "  Nothing  is  so 
acceptable  to  a  reindeer  as  human  urine,  and  I  have  even  seen  them  run 
to  get  it  as  occasion  offered."  —  (John  Dundas  Cochrane,  "  Pedestrian 
Journey  Through  Siberian  Tartary,"  1820-23,  Philadelphia,  1824, 
p.  235.) 

Melville  also  relates  that  he  saw  the  drivers  urinate  into  the  mouths 
of  their  reindeer  in  the  Lena  Delta. —  (Personal  letter  to  Captain 
Bourke.) 

Here  the  intent  was  evident ;  the  animals  needed  salt,  and  no  other 
method  of  obtaining  it  was  feasible  during  the  winter  months.  Coch- 
rane is  speaking  of  the  Tchuktchi ;  but  he  was  also  among  Yakuts 
and  other  tribes.  He  walked  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Kamtschatka  and 
from  point  to  point  in  Siberia  for  a  total  distance  of  over  six  thousand 
miles.  His  pages  are  dark  with  censure  of  the  filthy  and  disgusting 
habits  of  the  savage  nomads,  as,  of  the  Yakuts,  "Their  stench  and  filth 
are  inconceivable.  .  .  .  The  large  tents  (of  the  Tchuktchi)  were  dis- 
giistingly  dirty  and  offensive,  exhibiting  every  species  of  grossness  and 
indelicacy."  Inside  the  tents  men,  women,  and  girls  were  absolutely 
naked.  "  They  drink  only  snow-water  during  the  winter,  to  melt 
which,  when  no  wood  can  be  had,  very  disgusting  and  dirty  means  are 
resorted  to,"  etc.  But  nowhere  does  he  speak  of  the  drinking  of  hu- 
man urine,  which,  as  has  been  learned  from  other  sources,  does  obtain 
among  them. 

(Tchuktchees  of  Siberia.)  "It  would  be  impossible,  with  decency, 
to  describe  their  habits,  or  explain  how  their  very  efforts  towards 
cleanliness  make  them  all  the  more  disgusting.  ...  It  requires  con- 
siderable habitude  or  terrible  experience  in  the  ojjcu  air  to  find  any 
degree  of  comfort  in  such  abodes.  The  Augean  stables  or  the  stump- 
tail  cow-sheds  appear  like  Paradise  in  comparison."  —  ("Ice-Pack  and 
Tundra,"  Gilder,  New  York,  1883,  p.  105.) 

PREPARATION    OF   SAL   AMMONIAC,  PHOSPHORUS,    SOLUTION    OF    INDIGO. 

Diderot  and  D'Alembert  say  that  the  sal  ammoniac  of  the  ancients 
was  prepared  with  the  urine  of  camels  ;  that  phosphorus,  as  then 
manufactured  in  England,  was  made  with  human  urine,  as  was  also 
saltpetre. — (Encyclopaedia,  Geneva,  1789,  article  "Urine.") 

Sal  ammoniac  derives  its  name  from  having  been  first  made  in  the 


URINE  AND   ORDURE   IN   INDUSTRIES.  19o 

vicinity  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon ;  it  would  be  of  consequence 
to  us  to  know  whether  or  not  the  priests  of  that  temple  had  adminis- 
tered urine  in  disease  before  they  learned  how  to  extract  from  it  the 
medicinal  salt  which  has  come  down  to  our  own  times. 

Schurig  devotes  a  chapter  to  the  medicinal  preparations  made  from 
human  ordure.  In  every  case  the  ordure  had  to  be  that  of  a  youth 
from  twenty-five  to  thirty  years  old.  This  manner  of  preparing  chem- 
icals from  the  human  excreta,  including  phosphorus  from  urine,  was 
carried  to  such  a  pitch  that  some  philosophers  believed  the  philoso- 
pher's stone  was  to  be  found  by  mixing  the  salts  obtained  from  human 
urine  with  those  obtained  from  human  excrement.  —  (See  "  Chylo- 
logia,"  pp.  739-742.) 

The  method  of  obtaining  sal  ammoniac  was  not  known  to  Pliny ;  he 
knew  of  gum  ammoniac,  which  he  says  distilled  from  a  tree,  called 
metopia,  grow'ing  in  the  sands  near  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon,  in 
Ethiopia.  —  (Nat.  Hist.  lib.  12,  cap.  22.) 

"  A  notion  has  prevailed  that  sal  ammoniac  was  made  of  the  sand 
on  which  camels  had  staled,  and  that  a  great  number  going  to  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon  gave  occasion  for  the  name  of  ammoniac, 
corrupted  to  armoniac.  Whether  it  ever  could  be  made  by  taking  up 
the  sand  and  preparing  it  with  fire,  as  they  do  the  dung  at  present, 
those  who  are  best  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  these  things  will  be 
best  able  to  judge.  I  was  informed  that  it  was  made  of  the  soot 
which  is  caused  by  burning  the  dung  of  cows  and  other  animals.  The 
hotter  it  is  the  better  it  produces ;  and  for  that  reason  the  dung  of 
pigeons  is  the  best ;  that  of  camels  is  also  much  esteemed."  (Here 
follows  a  description  of  the  method  of  distilling  this  soot.)  —  (Pocock's 
"Travels  in  Egypt,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xv.  p.  381.) 

"  Purifi^e,  rUrine  sert  dans  les  arts  pour  degraisser  lea  laines,  dis- 
soudre  I'indigo,  prepare  le  sel  ammoniac."  —  (Personal  letter  from 
Prof.  Frank  Rede  Fowke,  South  Kensington  Museum,  June  18, 
1888.) 

MANUEE   EMPLOYED   AS   FUEL. 

The  employment  of  manures  as  fuel  for  firing  pottery  among 
Moquis,  Zunis,  and  other  Pueblos,  and  for  general  heating  in  Thibet, 
has  been  pointed  out  by  the  author  in  a  former  work.  ("Snake 
Dance  of  the  Moquis,"  London,  1884.)  It  was  used  for  the  same 
purpose  in  Africa,  according  to  Mungo  Park.  ("  Travels,"  etc.,  p.  119.) 
The  dung  of  the  buffalo  served  the  same  purpose  in  the  domestic 


196  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

economy  of  the  Plains  Indians.  Camel  dung  is  the  fuel  of  the 
Eedouins ;  that  of  men  and  animals  alike  was  saved  and  dried  by 
the  Syrians,  Arabians,  Egyptians,  and  people  of  West  of  England  for 
fuel.  Egyptians  heated  their  lime-kilns  with  it.  —  (McClintock  and 
Strong,  "Dung."  See,  also,  Kitto's  Biblical  Encyclopaedia,  article 
"Dung.") 

Pocock  says  of  camel  dung  :  "  In  order  to  make  fuel  of  it,  they  mix 
it,  if  I  mistake  not,  with  chopped  straw,  and,  I  think,  sometimes  with 
earth,  and  make  it  into  cakes  and  dry  it ;  and  it  is  burnt  by  the 
common  people  in  Egypt ;  for  the  wood  they  bum  at  Cairo  is  very 
dear,  as  it  is  brought  from  Asia  Minor." — (Pocock,  in  Pinkerton, 
vol.  XV.  p.  381.) 

Bruce  does  not  allude  to  any  of  the  filthy  customs  which  are  de- 
tailed by  Schweinfurth,  Sir  Samuel  Baker,  and  others  ;  he  does  say  that 
the  Nuba  of  the  villages  called  Daher,  at  the  head  of  the  White  Nile, 
Abyssinia,  "  never  eat  their  meat  raw  as  in  Abyssinia ;  but  with  the 
stalk  of  the  dura  or  millet  and  the  dung  of  camels  they  make  ovens 
under  ground,  in  which  they  roast  their  hogs  whole,  in  a  very  cleanly 
and  not  disagreeable  manner."  —  ("Nile,"  Dublin,  1791,  vol.  v.  p. 
172.) 

"Argol,  the  dried  dung  of  camels,  is  the  common  fuel  of  Mongo- 
lia."—  ("Among  the  Mongols,"  Rev.  James  Gilmour,  London,  1883, 
pp.  84,  146,  191,  296.) 

The  dung  of  camels  is  the  fuel  of  the  Kirghis.  —  (See  "  Oriental 
and  Western  Siberia,"  T.  W.  Atkinson,  New  York,  1865,  pp.  218, 
221.) 

See  also  "From  Paris  to  Pekin,"  Meignan,  London,  1885,  pp.  186, 
306,  310,  333;  Burton's  edition  of  the  "Arabian  Nights,"  vol.  iii. 
p.  51 ;  Father  Gerbillon's  Account  of  Tartary,  in  Du  Halde,  vol.  iv. 
p.  151.) 

"Asses'  dung  used  for  fuel  and  other  purposes,  such  as  making  Joss 
sticks."  —  (Burton's  edition  of  the  "Arabian  Nights,"  vol.  ii.  p.  149, 
footnote. ) 

Cow-dung  fuel  and  sheep-dung  fuel  alluded  to  by  Hue,  as  used  in 
Thibet.  —  (See  also  Manning,  Bogle,  and  Delia  Penna,  in  Markham's 
"Thibet,"  London,  1879,  p.  70.) 

Friar  William  de  Rubruquis,  the  ^Minorite,  sent  as  ambassador  to 
the  Grand  Khan  of  Tartary,  by  Saint  Louis,  King  of  France,  in  1253, 
speaks  of  eating  "  Unleavened  bread  baked  in  Oxe-Dung  or  Horse- 
dung  "  (in  Purchas,  vol.  i.  p.  34).     Cow  dung  used  for  the  same  pur- 


URINE  AND   ORDURE  IN   INDUSTRIES.  197 

pose  iu  Thibet.  —  (See  Turner's  "Embassy  to  Thibet,"  Loudon,  180G, 
p.  202.) 

"  Cowe-dung  fewell,"  in  Malta,  mentioned  by  Master  George  Sandys, 
A.D.  1610  (in  Purchas,  vol.  ii.  916).  —  ("Stercus  bouinum,"  in  Egypt, 
idem,  vol,  ii.  p.  898.) 

Yak  manure  used  as  fuel  in  Eastern  Thibet,  according  to  W.  W. 
Eockhill  in  "Border  Land  of  China,"  in  "Century "  Magazine,  New 
York,  1890. 

Cow  manure  employed  for  the  same  purpose  by  the  people  of  Tur- 
key in  Asia,  in  the  valley  of  the  Tigris,  near  Mosul,  according  to  George 
Smith.  —  ("Assyrian  Discoveries,"  New  York,  1876,  p.  122.) 

The  "whole  fuel'"  of  the  Mongols  is  "cow  or  horse  dung  dried  in 
the  sun." — (Father  Gerbillon's  Account  of  Tartary,  in  Du  Halde, 
vol.  iv.  pp.  234,  270.) 

The  use  of  cow-dung  as  fuel  in  certain  parts  of  the  world  would  seem 
not  to  be  entirely  divested  of  the  religious  idea. 

"  Firewood  at  Seringapatam  is  a  dear  article,  and  the  fuel  most  com- 
monly used  is  cow-dung  made  up  into  cakes.  This,  indeed,  is  much 
used  in  every  part  of  India,  especially  by  men  of  rank ;  as,  from  the 
veneration  paid  the  cow,  it  is  considered  as  by  far  the  most  pure  sub- 
stance that  can  be  employed.  Every  herd  of  cattle,  when  at  pasture, 
is  attended  by  women,  and  these  often  of  high  caste,  who  with  their 
hands  gather  up  the  dung  and  carry  it  home  in  baskets. 

"  They  then  form  it  into  cakes,  about  half  an  inch  thick,  and  nine 
inches  in  diameter,  and  stick  them  on  the  walls  to  dry.  So  different 
indeed  are  Hindu  notions  of  cleanliness  from  ours  that  the  walls  of 
their  best  houses  are  frequently  bedaubed  with  these  cakes ;  and  every 
morning  numerous  females,  from  all  parts  of  the  neighborhood,  bring 
for  sale  into  Seringapatam  baskets  of  this  fuel.  Many  females  who 
carry  large  baskets  of  cow-dung  on  their  heads  are  well-dressed  and 
elegantly  formed  girls." —  ("A  Journey  through  Mysore,"  Buchanan, 
Pinkertou,  vol.  viii.  p.  612.) 

SMUDGES. 

Dried  ordure  is  generally  used  for  smudges,  to  drive  away  insects ; 
the  Indians  of  the  Great  Plains  beyond  the  Missouri  burned  the 
"  chips  "  of  the  buffalo  with  this  object. 

The  natives  of  the  White  Nile  "make  tumuli  of  dung  which  are 
constantly  on  fire,  fresh  fuel  being  added  constantly,  to  drive  away  the 
mosquitoes."  —  ("  The  Albert  Nyanza,"  Baker,  p.  53.) 


198  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"When  they  burn  it  (the  dung  of  a  camel)  the  smoke  which  pro- 
ceeds from  it  destroys  Gnats  and  all  kinds  of  vermin."  —  (Chinese 
recipes  given  in  Du  Halde's  "  History  of  China,"  vol.  iv.  p.  34.) 

Schweinfurth  describes  the  Shillooks  of  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile  as 
"  burning  heaps  of  cow-dung  to  keep  off  the  flies."  —  ("  Heart  of 
Africa,"  vol.  i.  p.  16.  See  also  "Central  Africa,"  Chaille  Long,  New 
York,  1877,  p.  215.) 

Such  smudges  were  employed  by  the  Arabians  to  kill  bed-bugs. 
"Effugatione  Cimicum "  effected  by  a  "suffumigium"  of  "stercore 
vaccine." —  ("Avicenna,"  vol.  ii.  p.  214,  a  47.) 

Rev.  James  Gilmour  describes  a  mode  of  extinguishing  a  burning 
tent,  observed  among  the  Mongols,  the  counterpart  of  which  is  to  be 
found  in  "Gulliver's  Travels." — -(See  "Among  the  Mongols,"  p.  23.) 

Lucius  Cataline,  accused  by  Marcus  Cicero  of  raising  a  flame  in  the 
city  of  Rome,  "I  believe  it,"  said  he,  "and,  if  I  cannot  extinguish  it 
with  water,  I  will  with  urine." — (Harington,  "Ajax,"  cap.  "Ulysses 
upon  Ajax,"  p.  22.) 

HUMAN  AND  ANIMAL  EXCRETA  TO  PROMOTE  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  HAIR 
AND  ERADICATE  DANDRUFF. 

For  shampooing  the  hair,  urine  was  the  favorite  medium  among  the 
Eskimo.^ 

Sahagun,  gives  in  detail  the  formula  of  the  preparation  applied  by 
the  Mexicans  for  the  eradication  of  dandruff" :  "  Cut  the  hair  close  to 
the  root,  wash  head  well  with  urine,  and  afterward  take  amole  (soap- 
weed)  and  coixochitl  leaves  —  the  amole  is  the  wormwood  of  this 
country  [in  this  Sahagun  is  mistaken] — and  then  the  kernels  of 
aguacate  ground  up  and  mixed  with  the  ashes  already  spoken  of 
(wood  ashes  from  the  fire-place),  and  then  rub  on  black  mud  with  a 
quantity  of  the  bark  mentioned  (mesquite)."  ^ 

A  similar  method  of  dressing  the  hair,  but  without  urine,  prevails 
among  the  Indians  along  the  Rio  Colorado  and  in  Sonora,  Mexico. 

1  See  Graah,  "Greenland,"  London,  1837,  p.  Ill,  and  Hans  Egede  Saabye, 
"Greenland,"  London,  1818,  p.  256. 

2  Contra  la  caspa  sera  necesario  cortar  muy  d  raiz  los  cabellos  y  lavarse  la  cabeza 
con  orinas  y  despues  toinar  las  hojas  de  ciertas  yerbas  que  en  indio  se  llaman  coio- 
xochitl  y  amolli  6  iztahuatl  que  es  el  agenjo  de  esta  tierra,  y  con  el  cuesco  del  agua- 
cate inolido  y  mezclado  con  el  cisco  que  esta  dicho  arriba  ;  y  sobre  esto  se  ha  de 
poner,  el  barro  negro  que  esta  referido,  con  cantidad  de  la  corteza  de  lo  dicho.  — 
(Sahagun,  in  Kingsborough,  vol.  vii.  p.  294.) 


URINE  AND   ORDURE   IN   INDUSTRIES.  199 

First,  an  application  is  made  of  a  mixture  of  river  mud  ("blue  mud," 
as  it  is  called  in  Arizona)  and  pounded  mesquite  bark.  After  three 
days  this  is  removed,  and  the  hair  thoroughly  washed  with  water  in 
which  the  saponaceous  roots  of  the  amole  have  been  steeped.  The 
hair  is  dyed  a  rich  blue-black,  and  remains  soft,  smooth,  and  glossy. 

Dove-dung  was  also  applied  externally  in  the  treatment  of  baldness. 
—  (Hippocrates,  Kuhn,  lib.  2,  p.  854.) 

The  urine  of  the  foal  of  an  ass  was  supposed  to  thicken  the  hair. 
(See  Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  cap  11.)  Camel's  dung,  reduced  to  ashes  and 
mixed  with  oil,  was  said  to  curl  and  frizzle  the  hair  (idem,  lib.  xxviii. 
cap.  8).  The  natives  of  the  Nile  above  Khartoum  have  "  their  hair 
stained  red  by  a  plaster  of  ashes  and  cow's  urine."  —  ("  The  Albert 
Nyanza,"  Sir  Samuel  Baker,  p.  39.) 

And  the  Shillooks  of  the  west  bank  make  "  repeated  applications  of 
clay,  gum,  or  dung,"  to  their  hair. —  ("Heart  of  Africa,"  Schwein- 
furth,  vol.  i.  p.  17 ;  idem,  the  IS'ueirs,  p.  32.) 

L'aqua  ex  stercore  distillata  fait  pousser  les  cheveux  "  ("Cib.  Scat. 
p.  29),  while  Schurig  (Chylologia,  p.  760)  says  that  the  same  prepara- 
tion "  promotes  the  growth  of  the  hair  and  prevents  its  falling  out." 

Schurig  further  says  that  swallow-dung  was  of  conceded  efficacy 
as  a  hair-dye,  and  was  applied  frequently  as  an  ointment.  (Idem, 
p.  817.)  He  recommends  the  use  of  mouse-dung  for  scald  head  and 
dandruff,  and  even  to  excite  the  growth  of  the  beard.  (Idem,  p.  823 
et  seq.)  Ammonia,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  "the  ashes  of  harts- 
horn, burnt  and  applied  with  wine,"  was  known  to  Pliny  as  a  remedy 
fur  dandruff.  (Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  11.)  Possibly  the  use  of  harts- 
horn for  this  purpose  sprang  from  the  prior  use  of  urine,  from  which 
hartshorn  or  ammonia  was  gradually  manufactured. 

For  loss  of  hair,  the  dung  of  pigeons,  cats,  rats,  mice,  geese,  swal- 
lows, rabbits,  or  goats,  or  human  urine,  applied  externally,  were  highly 
recommended  by  Paullini,  in  his  "  Dreck  Apothek,"  Frankfort,  1696. 

Cat-dung  was  highly  recommended  by  Sextus  Placitus. 

AS    A    MEANS    OF    WASHING    VESSELS. 

Among  the  Shillooks,  "ashes,  dung,  and  the  urine  of  cows  are  the 
indispensable  requisites  of  the  toilet.  The  item  last  named  affects  the 
nose  of  the  stranger  rather  unpleasantly  when  he  makes  use  of  any  of 
their  milk  vessels,  as,  according  to  a  regular  African  habit,  they  are 
washed  with  it,  probably  to  compensate  for  a  lack  of  salt."  —  ("Heart 
of  Africa,"  Schweinfurth,  vol.  i.  p.  IG.) 


200  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  The  Obbo  natives  are  similar  to  the  Bari  in  some  of  their  habits. 
I  have  had  great  difficulty  in  breaking  my  cow-keeper  of  his  disgusting 
custom  of  washing  the  milk-bowl  with  cow's  urine,  and  even  mixing 
some  with  the  milk.  He  declares  that  unless  he  washes  his  hands 
with  such  water  before  milking  the  cow  will  lose  her  milk.  This  filthy 
custom  is  unaccountable."  —  ("  The  Albert  Nyanza,"  Baker,  p.  240.) 

A  personal  letter  from  Chief  Engineer  Melville,  U.  S.  Navy,  states 
that  the  natives  of  Eastern  Siberia  use  urine  "  for  cleansing  their 
culinary  materials." 

By  the  tribes  on  Lake  Albert  Nyanza,  the  "  butter  was  invariably 
packed  in  a  plantain  leaf,  but  frequently  the  package  was  plastered 
with  cow-dung  and  clay."  ("  The  Albert  Nyanza,"  p.  363.  See,  also, 
extract  from  PauUini,  on  p.  316,  and  from  Schurig,  p.  121,  of  this 
volume.)  There  certainly  seems  to  be  a  trace  of  superstition  in  the 
first  case  mentioned  by  Sir  Samuel  Baker. 

In  the  County  Cork,  Ireland,  rusty  tin  dishes  are  scoured  with  cow 
manure ;  the  manure  is  blessed,  and  so  will  benefit  the  dishes  and 
bring  good  luck.  It  is  a  not  infrequent  custom  to  bury  "keelars"  and 
other  dishes  for  holding  milk  under  a  manure-heap  during  the  winter 
and  early  spring  (when  cows  are  apt  to  be  dry,  and  the  milk-dishes 
empty),  to  protect  them  (the  dishes)  from  persons  evilly  disposed,  who 
might  cast  a  spell  on  them,  and  so  bewitch  either  the  cows  or  the  milk. 
Such  an  evil-eyed  person  could  not  harm  a  dish  unless  empty. 

"The  cow  is  believed  to  be  a  blessed  animal,  and  hence  the  manure 
is  sacred."  (Personal  letter  from  Mrs.  Fanny  D.  Bergen,  Cambridge, 
Mass.)  This  belief  of  the  Celtic  peasantry  apparently  connects  itself 
Avith  the  religious  veneration  in  which  the  cow  is  held  by  the  people 
of  India. 

FILTHY   HABITS   IN   COOKING. 

The  Eskimo  relate  stories  of  a  people  who  preceded  them  in  the 
Polar  regions  called  the  Tornit.  Of  these  predecessors,  they  say, 
"  Their  way  of  preparing  meat  was  disgusting,  since  they  let  it  become 
putrid,  and  placed  it  between  the  thigh  and  the  belly  to  warm  it."  — 
("  The  Central  Eskimo,"  Dr.  Franz  Boas,  in  Sixth  Annual  Report, 
Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washington,  D.  C,  1888,  p.  635.) 

This  recalls  the  similar  method  of  the  Tartars,  who  used  to  seat 
themselves  on  their  horses  with  their  meat  under  them. 


UEINE  IN   CEREMONIAL  ABLUTIONS.  201 


XXVII. 

URINE  IN   CEREMONIAL   ABLUTIONS. 

Wf  HERE   urine  is  applied  in  bodily  ablutions,  the  object  sought  is 

"  undoubtedly  the  procuring  of  ammonia  by  oxidation,  and  in  no 
case  of  that  kind  is  it  sought  to  ascribe  an  association  of  religious 
ideas.  But  where  the  ablutions  are  attended  with  ceremonial  obser- 
vances, are  incorporated  in  a  ritual,  or  take  place  in  chambers  reserved 
for  sacred  purposes,  it  is  not  unfair  to  suggest  that  everything  made 
use  of,  including  the  urine,  has  a  sacred  or  a  semi-sacred  significance. 

No  difficulty  is  experienced  in  assigning  to  their  ])roper  categories 
the  urinal  ablutions  of  the  Eskimo  of  Greenland  (Hans  Egede  Saabye, 
p.  256)  ;  of  the  Alaskans  (Sabytschew,  in  Phillips,  vol.  vi.) ;  of  the 
Indians  of  the  northwest  coast  of  America  (Whymper's  "  Alaska," 
London,  18GS,  p.  U2  ;  H.  H.  Bancroft,  "Nat.  Races,"  vol.  i.  p.  83)  ; 
of  the  Indians  of  Cape  Flattery  (Swan,  in  "  Smithsonian  Coutrib.") ; 
of  the  people  of  Iceland  (see  below)  ;  of  Siberia  (see  below)  ;  and  of 
the  savages  of  Lower  California. 

Pericuis  of  Lower  California.  "  Mothers,  to  protect  them  against 
the  weather,  cover  the  entire  bodies  of  their  children  with  a  varnish 
of  coal  and  urine."  —  (Bancroft,  vol.  i.  p.  559.) 

Clavigero  not  only  tells  all  that  Bancroft  does,  but  he  adds  that  the 
women  of  California  washed  their  own  faces  in  urine.  —  ("  Hist,  de 
Raja  California,"  Mexico,  1852,  p.  28;  see,  also,  Orozco  y  Berra  and 
Baegert.) 

"  People  of  Iceland  are  reported  to  wash  their  faces  and  hands  in 
pisse."  (Hakluyt,  "  Voyages,"  vol.  i.  p.  664.)  This  report  was,  how- 
ever, indignantly  denied  of  all  but  the  common  people  by  Arugriauus 
Jonas,  an  Icelandic  writer. 

The  inhabitants  of  Ounalashka  "  wash  themselves  first  with  their 
own  urine,  and  afterwards  with  water."  —  ("Russian  Discoveries," 
William  Coxe,  London,  1803,  quoting  Solovoofs  "Voyage,"  176-4, 
p.  226.) 


202  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

In  the  same  volume  is  to  be  found  the  statement  that  in  Alaska  and 
the  Fox  Islands,  the  people  •'  washed  themselves,  according  to  custom, 
tirst  with  urine,  and  then  with  water."  —  (p.  225,  quoting  "  Voyage  of 
Captain  Krenitzin,"  1768.) 

When  a  child  gets  very  dirty  "  with  soot  and  grease,"  a  Vancouver 
squaw  uses  "  stale  urine  "  to  cleanse  it.  "  This  species  of  alkali  as  a 
substitute  for  soap  is  the  general  accompaniment  of  the  morning 
toilet  of  both  sexes,  male  and  female.  During  winter  they  periodically 
scrub  themselves  with  sand  and  urine." —  (J.  G.  Swan,  "Indians  of 
Cape  Flattery,  Smithsonian  Coutributious  to  Knowledge,"  No.  220, 
p.  19.) 

Among  the  Tchuktchees,  urine  "  is  a  useful  article  in  their  house- 
hold economy,  being  preserved  in  a  special  vessel,  and  employed  as  a 
soap  or  lye  for  cleansing  bodies  or  clothing."  —  ("  In  the  Lena  Delta," 
Melville,  p.  318.) 

"  But  they  also  wash  themselves,  as  well  as  their  clothes,  with  it ; 
and  even  in  the  hot  bath,  of  which  men  and  women  are  alike  fond, 
because  they  love  to  perspire,  it  is  with  this  fluid  they  sometimes  make 
their  ablutions."  —  (Lisiansky,  "Voyage  round  the  World,"  Loudon, 
1811,  p.  214.) 

Used  as  "  a  substitute  for  soap-lees,  according  to  Langsdorff."  — 
("Voyages,"  London,  1814,  vol.  ii.  p.  47.) 

"  By  night,  the  Master  of  the  house,  with  all  his  family,  his  wife 
and  children,  Ij'e  in  one  room.  .  .  .  All  of  them  make  water  in  one 
chamber-pot,  with  which,  in  the  morning,  they  wash  their  face,  mouth, 
teeth,  and  hands.  They  allege  many  reasons  thereof,  to  wit,  that  it 
makes  a  faire  face,  maintaineth  the  strength,  confirmeth  the  sinewes  in 
the  hands,  and  preserveth  the  teeth  from  putrefaction." —  ("Dittmar 
Bleekens,"  in  Purchas,  vol.  i.  p.  647.) 

After  describing  the  double  tent  of  skins  used  by  the  Tchuktchees, 
Mr.  W.  H.  Gilder,  author  of  "  Schwatka's  Search,"  says  all  food  is 
served  in  the  "yoronger,"  or  inner  tent,  in  which  men  and  women  sit, 
in  a  state  of  nudity,  wearing  only  a  small  loin-cloth  of  seal-skin. 

After  finishing  the  meal,  "  a  small,  shallow  pail  or  pan  of  wood  is 
passed  to  any  one  who  feels  so  inclined,  to  furnish  the  warm  urine  with 
which  the  board  and  knife  are  washed  by  the  housewife.  It  is  a  matter 
of  indifference  who  furnishes  the  fluid,  whether  the  men,  women,  or 
children  ;  and  I  have  myself  frequently  supplied  the  landlady  with  the 
dish-water.  In  nearly  every  tent  there  is  kept  from  the  summer  season 
a  small  supply  of  dried  grass.     A  little  bunch  of  this  is  dipped  in  the 


URINE  IN   CEREMONIAL  ABLUTIONS,  203 

warm  urine  and  serves  as  a  dish-rag  and  a  napkin.  These  people  are 
generally  kind  and  hospitable,  and  were  very  attentive  to  my  wants  as 
a  stranger,  and  regarded  by  them  as  more  helpless  than  a  native. 
The  women  would,  therefore,  often  turn  to  me  after  washing  the  board 
and  knife,  and  wash  my  fingers  and  wipe  the  grease  from  my  mouth 
with  the  moistened  grass.  Any  of  the  men  or  women  in  the  tent 
who  desired  it  would  also  ask  for  the  wet  grass,  and  use  it  in  the  same 
way. 

"  It  was  not  done  as  a  ceremony,  but  merely  as  a  matter  of  course 
or  of  necessity. 

"  I  do  not  think  they  would  use  urine  for  such  purposes  if  they 
could  get  all  the  water,  and  especially  the  warm  water,  they  needed. 
But  all  the  water  they  have  in  winter  is  obtained  by  melting  snow  or 
ice  over  an  oil  lamp,  —  a  very  slow  process ;  and  the  supply  is  there- 
fore very  limited,  being  scarcely  more  than  is  required  for  drinking 
pui'poses,  or  to  boil  such  fresh  meat  as  they  may  have. 

"  The  urine,  being  warm  and  containing  a  small  quantity  of  am- 
monia, is  particularly  well  adapted  for  removing  grease  fi'om  the  boai'd 
and  utensils,  which  would  otherwise  soon  become  foul,  and  to  their 
taste  much  more  disagreeable. 

"  The  bottom  of  the  '  yoronger  '  is  generally  carpeted  with  tanned 
seal-skins,  and  tl)ey  too  are  frequently  washed  with  the  same  fluid. 
The  consequence  is  that  there  is  ever  a  mingled  odor  of  ammonia  and 
rotten  walrus-meat  pervading  a  well-supplied  and  thrifty  Tchouktchi 
dwelling."  —  (Personal  letter  to  Captain  Bourke,  dated  !N^ew  York, 
October  15,  1889.) 

"  Vice-Admiral  of  the  XaiTow  Seas."  "  A  drunken  man  that  pisses 
under  the  table  into  his  companion's  shoes."  — (Grose,  "  Dictionary  of 
Buckish  Slang,"  London,  1811,  article  as  above.) 

This  use  of  urine  as  a  tooth-wash  has  had  a  very  extensive  diffusion  ; 
it  is  still  to  be  found  in  many  parts  of  Europe  and  America,  of  boasted 
enlightenment.  The  Celtiberii  of  Spain,  "  although  they  boasted  of 
cleanliness  both  in  their  nourishment  and  in  their  dress,  it  was  not 
unusual  for  them  to  wash  their  teeth  and  bodies  in  urine,  —  a  custom 
which  they  considered  favorable  to  health."  —  (Maltebrun,  "  Univ. 
Geog.,"  vol.  v.  book  137,  p.  357,  article  "  Spain.") 

From  Strabo  we  learn  that  the  Iberians  "  do  not  attend  to  ease  or 
luxury,  unless  any  one  considers  it  can  add  to  the  happiness  of  their 
lives  to  wash  themselves  and  their  wives  in  stale  urine  kept  in  tanks, 
and  to  rinse  their  teeth  with  it,  which  they  say  is  the  custom  both 


204  .  SCATALOGIC   RITES  OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

with  the  Cantabrians  and  their  neighbors."  (Strabo,  "Geography," 
Bohn,  lib.  iii.  cap.  4,  par.  IG,  Loudon,  1854.  In  a  footnote  it  is 
stated  that  "  Apuleius,  Catullus,  and  Diodorus  Siculus  all  speak  of 
this  singular  custom.")  The  same  practice  is  alluded  to  by  Percy,  and 
also  by  the  "  Encyclopedie  and  Dictionnaire  liaisonne  des  Sciences," 
Neufchatel,  1745,  vol.  xvii.  p.  499  ;  and  the  practice  is  said  to  obtain 
among  the  modem  Spaniards  as  well.  "  Les  Espagnols  font  grand 
usage  de  I'urine  pour  se  nettoyer  les  dents.  Les  anciens  Celtiberiens 
faisoieut  la  meme  chose."  —  (Received  from  Prof.  Frank  Rede  Fowke, 
London,  June  18,  1888.) 

Bien  que  soigneux  de  leurs  persounes  et  propre  dans  leur  maniere 
de  vivre,  les  Celtiberes  se  lavent  tout  le  corps  d'urine,  s'eu  frottant 
nieme  les  dents,  estimant  cela  un  bon  moyen  pour  entretenir  la  sante 
du  corps."  —  (Diodore,  v.  33.) 

"  Nunc  Celtiber,  in  Celtiberia  terra 
Quod  quisque  minxit,  hoc  solet  sibi  mane 
Dentem  atque  russam  defricare  ginginam." 

(Catullus,  "Epigrams,"  39.) 

The  manners  of  the  Celtiberians,  as  described  by  Strabo  and  others, 
have  come  down  through  many  generations  to  their  descendants  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  ;  all  that  he  related  of  the  use  of  human  urine  as  a 
mouth-wash,  as  a  means  of  ablution,  and  as  a  dentifrice,  was  trans- 
planted to  the  shores  of  America  by  the  Spanish  colonists ;  and  even 
in  the  present  generation,  according  to  Gen.  S.  V.  Benet,  U.  S.  Arm}', 
traces  of  such  customs  were  to  be  found  among  some  of  the  settlers  in 
Florida. 

The  same  custom  has  been  observed  among  the  natives  along  the 
Upper  Nile.  "  The  Obbo  natives  wash  out  tlieir  mouths  with  their 
own  urine.  This  habit  may  have  originated  in  the  total  absence  of 
salt  in  their  country."  —  ("  The  Albert  Nyanza,"  Sir  Samuel  Baker, 
p.  240.) 

In  England  likewise  there  was  a  former  employment  of  the  same 
fluid  as  a  dentifrice. 

"  '  Nettoyer  ses  dents  avec  de  I'urine,  mode  espagnole,'  dit  Erasme." 
—  ("Les  Primitifs,"  Elie  Reclus,  Paris,  1885,  quoting  Erasmus,  "  De 
Civilitate.") 

Urine  was  employed  as  a  tooth-wash,  alone  or  mixed  with  orris 
powder.  "  Farina  orobi  (bitter  vetch)  permisceatur  cum  nrina."  — 
("  Medicus  Microcosmus,"  Danieius  Beckherius,  pp.  62-64.) 


URINE  IN   CEREMONIAL   ABLUTIONS.  205 

A  paraj^raph  in  Paullini's  "  Dreck  Apothek,"  p.  74,  would  show 
that  in  Germany  the  same  usages  were  not  unknown.  As  a  dentifrice 
he  recommends  urine  as  a  wash  ;  or  a  powder  made  of  pulverized  gravel 
stone,  mixed  with  urine. 

Ivan  Petroff  states  that  the  peasants  of  Portugal  still  wash  their 
clothes  in  urine. —  (Ivan  Petroff,  in  "  Trans.  American  Anthropologi- 
cal Society,"  1882,  vol.  i.) 

Urine  is  used  on  whaling  vessels,  when  stale,  for  washing  flannel 
shirts,  which  are  then  thrown  overboard  and  towed  after  the  ship. — 
(Dr.  J.  H.  Porter.) 

Dr.  V.  T.  McGillicuddy,  of  Rapid  City,  Dakota,  furnishes  the  infor- 
mation that  Irish,  German,  and  Scandinavian  washerwomen  who  have 
immigrated  to  the  United  States  persist  in  adding  human  urine  to  the 
water  to  be  used  for  cleansing  blankets. 

"I  have  observed  somewhere  that  the  Basks  and  some  Hindus 
clean  their  mouths  with  urine,  but  I  do  not  remember  the  book."  — 
(Dr.  Alfred  Gatchett,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washington,  D.  C.) 

Dr.  Carl  Lumholtz,  of  Christiania,  Xorway,  states  that  he  had  seen 
the  savages  of  Herbert  River,  Australia,  in  18°  south  latitude,  with 
whom  he  lived  for  some  months,  use  their  own  urine  to  clean  their 
hands  after  they  had  been  gathering  wild  honey. 

The  statement  concerning  the  Celtiberians  may  also  be  found  in 
Clavigero. —  ("Hist,  de  Baja  California,"  p.  28,  quoting  Diodorus 
Siculus.) 

Diderot  and  DAlembert  assert  unequivocally  that  in  the  latter 
years  of  the  last  century  the  people  of  the  Spanish  Peninsula  still  used 
urine  as  a  dentifrice.  —  (•'  Les  Espagnols,"  etc.,  reading  as  above  given 
from  "Diet.  Raisonne."  See  Encyclop^die,  Geneva,  1789,  article 
"  Urine.") 


206  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XXVIII. 

URINE  IN   CEREMONIAL  OBSERVANCES. 

"OUT  in  the  examples  adduced  from  Whymper  coucerning  the  people 
of  the  village  of  Unlacheet,  ou  Norton  Sound,  "  the  dancers  of 
the  Malemutes  of  Norton  Sound  bathed  themselves  in  urine."  (Whym- 
per's  "Alaska,"  London,  1868,  pp.  142,  152.)  Although,  on  another 
page,  Whymper  says  that  this  was  for  want  of  soap,  doubt  may,  with 
some  reason,  be  entertained.  Bathing  is  a  frequent  accompaniment, 
au  integral  part  of  the  religious  ceremonial  among  all  the  Indians  of 
America,  and  no  doubt  among  the  Inuit  or  Eskimo  as  well ;  when  this 
is  performed  by  dancers,  there  is  further  reason  to  examine  carefully 
for  a  religious  complication,  and  especially  if  these  dances  be  celebrated 
in  sacred  places,  as  Petrofif  relates  they  are. 

"  They  never  bathe  or  wash  their  bodies,  but  on  certain  occasions 
the  men  light  a  fire  in  the  kashima,  strip  themselves,  and  dance  and 
jump  around  until  in  a  profuse  perspiration.  They  then  apply  urine  to 
their  oily  bodies  and  rub  themselves  until  a  lather  appears,  after  which 
they  plunge  into  the  river."  —  (Ivan  PetrofF  in  "  Transactions  Ameri- 
can Anthropological  Society,"  vol.  i.  1882.) 

"  In  each  village  of  the  Kuskutchewak  (of  Alaska)  there  is  a  public 
building  named  the  kashim,  in  which  councils  are  held  and  festivals 
kept,  and  which  must  be  large  enough  to  contain  all  the  grown  men 
of  the  village.  It  has  raised  platforms  around  the  walls,  and  a  place 
in  the  centre  for  a  fire,  with  an  aperture  in  the  roof  for  the  admis- 
sion of  light."  —  (Richardson,  "  Arctic  Searching  Expedition,"  London, 
1851,  p.  365.) 

Those  kashima  are  identical  with  the  estufas  of  Zunis,  Moquis,  and 
Rio  Grande  Pueblos.  Whymper  himself  describes  them  thus  :  "  These 
buildings  may  be  regarded  as  the  natives'  town  hall ;  orations  are  made, 
festivals  and  feasts  are  held  in  them." 

No  room  is  left  for  doubt  after  reading  the  fuller  description  of  these 
kashima,  contained  in  Bancroft.     He  says  the  Eskimo  dance  in  them. 


URINE  IN   CEREMONIAL  OBSERVANCES.  207 

"often  in puris  natnralibus"  and  make  "burlesque  imitations  of  birde 
and  beasts."  Dog  or  wolf  tails  hang  to  the  rear  of  their  garments.  A 
sacred  feast  of  fish  and  berries  accompanies  these  dances,  wherein  the 
actors  "  elevate  the  provisions  successively  to  the  four  cardinal  points, 
and  once  to  the  skies  above,  when  all  partake  of  the  feast."  —  (Ban- 
croft, "  Native  Races,"  vol.  i.  p.  78.) 

There  is  a  description  of  one  of  these  dances  by  an  American,  Mr. 
W.  H.  Gilder,  an  eyewitness.  "  The  kasliine  (sic)  is  a  sort  of  town 
hall  for  the  male  members  of  the  tribe.  ...  It  is  built  almost  en- 
tirely under  ground,  and  with  a  roof  deeply  covered  with  earth.  It  is 
lighted  through  a  skylight  in  the  roof,  and  entered  by  a  passage-way 
and  an  opening  which  can  only  be  passed  by  crawling  on  hands  and 
knees.  ...  In  the  centre  of  the  room  is  a  deep  pit,  where  in  winter  a 
fire  is  built  to  heat  the  building,  after  which  it  is  closed,  and  the 
heat  retained  for  an  entire  day.  In  this  building  the  men  live  almost 
all  the  time.  Here  they  sleep  and  eat,  and  they  seldom  rest  in  the 
bosom  of  their  families."  He  further  says  that  there  was  "a  shelf 
which  extends  all  round  the  room  against  the  wall.  .  .  .  One  young 
man  prepared  himself  for  the  dance  by  stripping  off  all  his  clothing, 
except  his  trousers,  and  putting  on  a  pair  of  reindeer  mittens.  .  .  . 
The  dance  had  more  of  the  character  of  Indian  performances  than  any 
I  had  ever  previously  seen  among  the  Esquimaux."  —  ("  Ice-Pack  and 
Tundra,"  pp.  56-58.) 

The  following  information  received  from  Victor  Namoff,  a  Kadiak  of 
mixed  blood,  relates  to  a  ceremonial  dance  which  he  observed  among  the 
Aiga-lukamut  Eskimo  of  the  southern  coast  of  Alaska,  The  informant, 
as  his  father  had  been  before  him,  had  for  a  number  of  years  been  em- 
ployed by  the  Russians  to  visit  the  various  tribes  on  the  mainland  to 
conduct  trade  for  the  collection  of  fui's  and  peltries.  Besides  being 
perfectly  familiar  with  the  English  and  Russian  languages,  he  had  ac- 
quired considerable  familiarity  with  quite  a  number  of  native  dialects, 
and  was  thus  enabled  to  mingle  with  the  various  peoples  among  whom 
much  of  his  time  was  spent.  The  ceremony  was  conducted  in  a  large 
partly  underground  chamber,  of  oblong  shape,  having  a  continuous 
platform  or  shelf,  constructed  so  as  to  be  used  either  as  seats  or  for 
sleeping.  The  only  light  obtained  was  from  native  oil  lamps.  The 
participants,  numbering  about  ten  dozen,  were  entirely  naked,  and 
after  being  seated  a  short  time  several  natives,  detailed  as  musicians, 
began  to  sing.  Then  one  of  the  natives  arose,  and  performed  the  dis- 
gusting operation  of  urinating  over  the  back  and  shoulders  of  the  per- 


208  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

son  seated  next  him,  after  which  he  jumped  down  upon  the  ground, 
and  began  to  dance,  keeping  time  with  the  music.  The  one  who  had 
been  subjected  to  the  operation  just  mentioned,  then  subjected  his 
nearest  neighbor  to  a  similar  douche,  and  he  in  turn  the  next  in 
order,  and  so  on  until  the  last  person  on  the  bench  had  been  similarly 
dealt  with,  he  in  turn  being  obliged  to  accommodate  the  initiator  of 
the  movement,  who  ceases  dancing  for  that  purpose.  In  the  mean- 
time all  those  who  have  relieved  themselves  step  down  and  join  in  the 
dance,  which  is  furious  and  violent,  inducing  great  perspiration  and  an 
intolerable  stench.  No  additional  information  was  given  further  thnn 
that  the  structure  may  have  been  used  in  this  instance  as  a  sudatorj-, 
the  urine  and  violent  movements  being  deemed  sufficient  to  supply  the 
necessary  amount  of  moisture  and  heat  to  supply  the  participants  with 
a  sweat-bath."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Dr.  W.  J.  Hoffman,  Bureau  of 
Ethnology,  Washington,  D.  C,  June  16,  1890.) 

Elliott  describes  the  "Orgies"  in  the  "Kashgas"  as  he  styles  them. 
"The  fire  is  usually  drawn  from  the  hot  stones  on  the  hearth.  ...  A 
kantog  of  chamber-lye  poured  over  them,  which,  rising  in  dense  clouds 
of  vapor,  gives  notice  by  its  presence  and  its  horrible  ammoniacal  odor 
to  the  delighted  inmates  that  the  bath  is  on.  The  kashga  is  heated  to 
suffocation  ;  it  is  full  of  smoke ;  and  the  outside  men  run  in  from  their 
huts  with  wisps  of  dry  grass  for  towels  and  bunches  of  alder  twigs  to 
flog  their  naked  bodies. 

"They  throw  off  their  garments;  they  shout  and  dance  and  whip 
themselves  into  profuse  perspiration  as  they  caper  in  the  hot  vapor. 
More  of  their  disgusting  substitute  for  soap  is  rubbed  on,  and  produces 
a  lather,  which  they  rub  off  with  cold  water.  .  .  .  This  is  the  most  en- 
joyable occasion  of  an  Indian's  existence,  as  he  solemnly  affirms. 
Nothing  else  affords  a  tithe  of  the  infinite  pleasure  which  this  orgy 
gives  him.  To  us,  however,  there  is  nothing  about  him  so  offensive  as 
that  stench  which  such  a  performance  arouses."  —  (Henry  W.  Elliott, 
"  Our  Arctic  Province,"  New  York,  1887,  p.  387.) 

"  Quoique  generalement  malpropres,  ces  gens  ont,  comme  les  autrcs 
Inoits  et  la  plupart  des  Indiens,  la  passion  des  bains  de  vapeur,  pour 
lesquels  le  kachim  a  son  installation  toujours  pret. 

**  Avec  Turine  qu'ils  recueillent  precieusement  pour  leurs  operations 
de  tannage,  ils  se  frottent  le  corps ;  I'alcali,  se  mclangeant  avec  les 
transpirations  et  les  huiles  dont  le  corps  est  impregne,  nettoie  la  peau 
comme  le  ferait  du  savon  ;  I'odeur  acre  de  cette  liqueur  putrifiee  parait 
leur  §tre  agrcable,  mais  elle  saisit  a  la  gorge  les  etrangers  qui  reculent 


URINE  IN  CEREMONIAL   OBSERVANCES.  200 

suffoqu^s,  et  ont  grand'peine  k  s'y  faire.  Horreur  !  horreur !  oui,  pour 
ceux  qui  ont  un  pain  de  savon  sur  leur  table  k  toilette  ;  mais  pour 
ceux  qui  ne  possedent  pas  ce  detersifJ"  —  ("Les  Primitifs,"  Reclus, 
p.  71,  "Les  Inoits  Occidentaux.") 

•'Nul  s'etonnera  que  lesOuhabites  et  les  Ougagos  de  I'Afrique  orien- 
tale  en  fassent  toujours  autant.  Mais  on  a  ses  preferences.  Ainsi 
Arabes  et  Bedouines  recherchent  I'urine  des  charaelles.  Les  Banianea 
de  Momba  se  lavent  la  figure  avec  de  1' Urine  de  vache,  parceque, 
disent-ils,  la  vache  est  leur  mere.  Cette  derniere  substance  est  aussi 
employee  par  les  Silesiennes  contra  les  taches  de  rousseur.  Les  Chow- 
seures  du  Caucase  la  trouvent  excellente  pour  entretenir  la  sante  et 
developper  la  luxuriance  de  la  chevelure.  A  cette  fin,  lis  receuillent 
soigneusement  le  purin  des  etables,  mais  le  liqnide  encore  impregne  de 
chalenr  vitale  passe  pour  le  plus  ^nergique.  Les  trayeuses  flattent  la 
bete,  Ini  sifilent  un  air,  chatouillent  certaine  organe  et  au  moment 
precis,  avancent  le  crane  pour  recevoir  le  flot  qui  s'epanche ;  la  mere 
industrieuse  fait  inonder  la  tete  de  son  nourrison  en  merae  temps  que 
la  sienne."  —  (Idem,  p.  73.) 

The  "  Estufa  "  of  the  Pueblos  was  no  doubt,  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the 
tribal  life,  a  communal  dwelling  similar  to  the  "yourts  "  of  the  Siberi- 
ans, like  which  it  had  but  one  large  opening  in  the  roof,  for  the  en- 
trance of  members  of  the  family,  or  clan,  and  the  egress  of  smoke.  An 
examination  of  the  myths  and  folk-lore  of  Siberia  might  reveal  to  us 
the  birth  and  the  meaning  of  the  visits  of  our  good  old  Christmas 
friend,  Santa  Claus,  who  certainly  never  sprang  from  European  soil.  A 
god,  loaded  with  gifts  for  good  little  children,  could  descend  the  ladders 
placed  in  the  chimneys  of  "  yourts "  and  "  estufas,"  but  such  a  feat 
would  be  an  impossibility  in  the  widest  chimneys  ever  constructed  in 
Germany  or  England  for  private  houses. 

The  habitations  of  the  natives  of  Ounalashka,  according  to  Langs- 
dorff,  are  made  with  the  entrances  through  the  roofs,  precisely  like 
those  of  the  people  of  Kamtchatka.  —  ("Voyages,"  vol.  ii.  p.  32.) 

The  "Estufa"  model  was  perpetuated  in  the  Temples  of  India, 
exactly  as  the  Imperial  market-places  of  Rome  supplied  the  type  of 
the  "  Basilica  "  of  the  Christian  Church. 

An  article  in  "Frazer's  Magazine,"  signed  F.  P.  C,  gives  the  dimen- 
sions of  the  great  Snake  Temple  of  Nakhon-Vat  in  Cambodia  :  "  Six 
hundred  feet  square  at  the  base,  .  .  .  rises  in  the  centre  to  the  height 
of  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet,  .  .  .  probably  the  grandest  temple  in 
the  world.  ...  In  the  inner  court  of  this  temple  are  '  tanks '  in  which 

U 


210  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

the  living  serpents  dwelt  and  were  adored.  .  .  .  The  difference  between 
these  'tanks'  and  the  '  Public  Estufas  '  is  simply  this  :  the  latter  are 
partially  or  almost  completely  roofed." 

Some  time  after  reaching  the  conclusion  just  expressed  and  much 
loss  of  study  in  a  fruitless  examination  of  Eucyclopa;dias,  which  did 
not  contain  so  much  as  the  name  of  the  patron  of  childhood,  the  work 
of  Mr.  George  Kennan  was  perused  in  which  the  same  views  are  antici- 
pated by  a  number  of  years ;  it  is  by  no  means  the  least  important 
fact  in  an  extremely  interesting  volume. 

"  The  houses,  if  houses  they  could  be  called,  were  about  twenty  feet 
in  height,  rudely  constructed  of  drift-wood  which  had  been  thrown  up 
by  the  sea,  and  could  be  compared  in  shape  to  nothing  but  hour- 
glasses. They  had  no  doors  or  windows  of  any  kind,  and  could  only 
be  entered  by  climbing  up  a  pole  on  the  outside,  and  slipping  down 
another  pole  through  the  chimney,  —  a  mode  of  entrance  whose  practi- 
cability depended  entirely  upon  the  activity  and  intensity  of  the  fire 
which  burned  underneath. 

"  The  smoke  and  sparks,  although  sufficiently  disagi*eeable,  were 
trifles  of  comparative  insignificance.  I  remember  being  told,  in  early 
infancy,  that  Santa  Glaus  always  came  into  a  house  through  the  chim- 
ney; and,  although  I  accepted  the  statement  with  the  unreason- 
ing faith  of  childhood,  I  could  never  understand  how  that  singular 
feat  of  climbing  down  a  chimney  could  be  safely  accomplished.  .  .  .  My 
first  entrance  into  a  Korak  'yourt,*  however,  at  Kamenoi,  solved  all 
my  childish  difficulties,  and  proved  the  possibility  of  entering  a  house 
in  the  eccentric  way  which  Santa  Glaus  is  supposed  to  adopt."  — 
(George  Kennan,  "Tent  Life  in  Siberia,"  12th  edition,  New  York, 
1887,  p.  222.) 

Steller  describes  a  Festival  of  the  Kamtchatkans  occurring  at  the 
end  of  November,  after  the  winter  provisions  are  in  ;  in  this,  one  party, 
on  the  outside  of  the  house,  attempts  to  lower  a  birch  branch  down 
through  the  chimney ;  the  party  on  the  inside  attempts  to  capture  it. 
--  (Steller,  "Kamtchatka,"  translated  by  Mr.  Bunnemeyer.) 

"  Every  time  they  make  water,  or  other  unclean  exercise  of  nature, 
they  wash  those  parts,  little  regarding  who  stands  by.  Before  prayer, 
they  wash  both  face  and  hands,  sometimes  the  head  and  privities."  — 
(Blount,  "Voy.  into  the  Levant,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  x.  p.  261.) 

"  Among  the  Negroes  of  Guinea,  when  a  wife  is  pregnant  for  the  first 
time,  she  must  perform  certain  '  ceremonies,' among  which  is  'going 
to  the  sea-shore  to  be  washed.'     She  is  followed  by  a  great  number  of 


UEINE   IN   CEREMONIAL   OBSERVANCES.  211 

boys  and  girls,  who  fling  all  noanner  of  dung  and  filth  at  her  in  her  way 
to  the  sea,  where  she  is  ducked  and  made  clean."  —  (Bosnian,  "  Guinea," 
in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  p.  423.) 

"In  1847,  I  was  then  twenty-six  years  old,  once  an  old  woman  (in 
Cherbourg)  came  to  me  with  a  washing-pan,  and  asked  me  to  piss  into 
it,  as  the  urine  of  a  stout,  healthy  young  man  was  required  to  wash 
the  bosoms  of  a  young  woman  who  was  just  delivered  of  a  child."  — 
(Personal  letter  from  Captain  Henri  Jouan,  French  Kavy,  to  Captain 
Bourke,  dated  Cherbourg,  France,  July  29,  1888.) 

In  Scotland,  the  breasts  of  a  young  mother  were  washed  with  salt 
and  water  to  ensure  a  good  flow  of  milk.  The  practice  is  alluded  to  in 
the  following  couplet  from  "  The  Fortunate  Shepherdess,"  by  Alexander 
Ross,  1778. 

"  Jean's  paps  wi'  sa't  and  water  washen  clean, 
Keed  that  her  milk  get  wrang,  fen  it  was  green." 

(Quoted  in  Brand,  "Pop.  Ant."  vol.  ii.  p.  80,  art.  "Christening 
Customs.") 

This  practice  seems  closely  allied  to  the  one  immediately  preceding. 
We  shall  have  occasion  to  show  that  salt  and  water,  holy  water,  and 
other  liquids  superseded  human  urine  in  several  localities,  Scotland 
among  others. 

"  Being  to  wean  one  of  their  children,  the  father  and  mother  lay  him 
on  the  ground,  and  whilst  they  do  that  which  modesty  will  not  permit 
me  to  name,  the  father  lifts  him  by  the  arm,  and  so  holds  him  for 
some  time,  hanging  in  the  air,  falsely  believing  that  by  these  means  he 
will  become  more  strong  and  robust."  —  (Father  Merolla,  "Voyage  to 
the  Congo,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  p.  237,  A.  D.  1682.) 

In  the  Bareshnun  ceremony,  the  Parsee  priest  "has  to  undergo 
certain  ablutions  wherein  he  has  to  apply  to  his  body  cow's  urine,  and 
sand  and  clay,  which  seem  to  have  been  the  common  and  cheapest  dis- 
infectant known  to  the  ancient  Iranians."  —  (Dr.  J.  W.  Kingsley,  Per- 
sonal letter  to  Captain  Bourke,  apparently  citing  "  The  History  of  the 
Parsees,"  by  Dosabhai  Framje  Karaka.) 

The  Manicheans  bathed  in  urine.  —  (Picart,  "Coutumes,"  etc.; 
"  Dissertation  sur  les  Perses,"  p.  18.) 

"  Le  lecteur  le  plus  degout^  s'en  occupe  presque  h,  son  insu  ;  quand 
il  demande  a  son  ami,  Comment  allez-vous  ?  s'il  vous  plait  si  ce  n'est 
la —  oh.  se  fait  ce  que  nous  disonsl  Dans  un  pays  voisin  on  se  salue 
en   disant.  La  matiere  est-elle  louable  ?     Et  en  Angleterre,  c'est  la 


212  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

nierae  pensee  qu'on  exprime  lorsqu'on  dit,  en  abordant  quelqu'un, 
How  do  you  dol     Comment  faites-vousl  —  (Bib.  Scat.  p.  21.) 

"  There  is  a  place  where  whenever  the  King  spits  the  greatest  ladies 
of  his  court  put  out  their  hands  to  receive  it ;  and  another  nation 
where  the  most  eminent  persons  about  him  stop  to  take  up  his  ordure 
in  a  linen  cloth."  —  (Montaigne,  Essays,  "  On  Customs.") 

"  A  few  days  after  birth,  or  according  to  the  fancy  of  the  parents,  an 
'angekok,'  who  by  relationship  or  long  acquaintance  with  the  family, 
has  attained  terms  of  great  friendship,  makes  use  of  some  vessel  and 
with  the  urine  of  the  mother  washes  the  infant,  while  all  the  gossips 
around  pour  forth  their  good  wishes  for  the  little  one  to  prove  an  active 
man,  if  a  boy,  or,  if  a  girl,  the  mother  of  plenty  of  children.  The 
ceremony,  I  believe,  is  never  omitted,  and  is  called  Gogsinariva."  — 
("The  Central  Eskimo,"  Boas,  p.  610,  quoting  G.  F.  Lyon,  "Private 
Journal  of  H.  M.  S.  Hecla,  during  the  recent  Voyage  of  Discovery 
luider  Captain  Parry,"  London,  1824.) 

The  same  custom  is  practised  by  the  Eskimo  of  Cumberland  Sound 
(idem). 

"Buffalo  dung  I  have  seen  carefully  arranged  in  (Crow)  Indian 
dance  tepees,  having  apparently  some  connection  with  the  ceremonies." 

—  (Personal  letter  from  Dr.  A.  B.  Holder,  Memphis,  Tenn.,  to  Cap- 
tain Bourke,  Feb.  6,  1890.) 

*'  In  one  of  the  sacred  dances  of  the  Cheyennes,  there  is  to  be  seen  an 
altar  surrounded  by  a  semi-circle  of  buffalo  chips.  This  dance  or  cere- 
mony is  celebrated  for  the  purpose  of  getting  an  abundance  of  ponies." 

—  (See  the  description  in  Dodge's  "Wild  Indians,"  pp.  127,  128.) 
The  sacred  pipes  used  in  the  Sun  Dance  of  the  Sioux  are  so  placed 

that  the  bowl  rests  upon  a  "buffalo  chip." — ("The  Sun  Dance  of 
the  Ogallalla  Sioux."  Alice  Fletcher,  in  "  Proceed.  American  Associ- 
ation for  the  Advancement  of  Science,"  1882.) 

The  drinking  of  the  water  in  which  anew-born  babe  had  been  bathed 
is  intimated  in  the  myths  of  the  Samoans.  When  the  first  baby  was 
bom  "  Salevao  provided  water  for  washing  the  child,  and  made  it  Saor, 
sacred  to  Moa.  The  rocks  and  the  earth  said  they  wished  to  get  some 
of  that  water  to  drink.  Salevao  replied  that  if  they  got  a  bamboo  he 
would  send  them  a  streamlet  through  it,  and  hence  the  origin  of 
springs." —  ("  Samoa,"  Turner,  London,  1884,  p.  10.) 

Although  it  is  not  so  stated  in  the  text,  yet  from  analogy  with  other 
cosmogonies  we  may  entertain  a  suspicion  as  to  how  the  god  provided 
the  water,  —  no  doubt  from  bis  own  person. 


URINE  IN   CEREMONIAL   OBSERVANCES.  213 


8TERC0RACE0US   CHAIR   OP   THE   POPES. 

"  Stercoraire,  Chaire  (Hist,  des  Papes) ;  c'est  ainsi  qu'on  nommait  a 
Eome,  au  rapport  de  M.  L'Enfaut,  une  chaire  qui  etoit  autrefois  devant 
le  portique  de  la  basilique,  sur  laquelle  ou  faisait  asseoir  le  Pape  le 
jour  de  sa  consecration.  Le  choeur  de  musique  lui  chantoit  alors  ccs 
paroles  du  Psaume  113,  selon  I'Hebreu,  et  le  112,  selou  le  Vulgate,  v.  G, 
et  suiv.  '  II  tire  de  la  poussiere  celui  qui  est  dans  I'indigence  et  il 
eleve  le  pauvre  de  sou  avilissement  pour  le  placer  avec  les  princes  de 
son  peuple ; '  c'etoit  pour  insinuer  au  Pape,  dit  cardinal  Kaspon,  la 
vertu  de  I'humilitt^,  qui  doit  etre  le  compagne  de  sa  grandeur.  Get  usage 
fut  aboli  par  L^on  X,  qui  u'^toit  pas  n^  pour  ces  sortes  de  minuties."  — 
("  Encyc.  ou  Diet.  Raison.  des  Sciences,"  etc.,  Neufchatel,  1765,  tome 
quinzieme,  article  as  above.) 

Consult  Ducange  also,  "  Stercoraria  Sedes,"  wherein  it  is  stated  that 
the  use  of  this  chair  could  be  traced  back  to  the  tenth  century. 

*'  Stercoraria  sedes,  in  qua  creati  pontifices  ad  frangendos  elatos 
spiritus  cousiderent,  unde  dicta." — (Baronius,  "Annales,"  Lucca, 
1758.) 

Pead  also  the  remarks  upon  the  subject  of  Ducking  Stools,  from 
which  this  seems  to  have  been  derived,  under  "  Ordeals  and  Punish- 
ments." 

Father  Le  Jeune  relates,  among  the  ceremonies  observed  by  the 
Indians  of  Canada  upon  capturing  a  bear,  that  no  women  were  allowed 
to  remain  in  the  lodge  with  the  carcass,  and  that  special  care  was  taken 
to  prevent  dogs  from  licking  the  blood,  gnawing  the  bones,  or  eating 
the  excrement.  —  (See  "  Eolations,"  1634,  vol.  i.,  Quebec,  1858.) 


214  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XXIX. 

ORDURE  IN   SMOKING. 

A  MONG  all  the  observances  of  the  every-day  life  of  the  American 

■*■  aborigines,  none  is  so  distinctly  complicated  with  the  religious 
idea  as  smoking;  therefore,  should  the  use  of  excrement,  human  or 
animal,  be  detected  in  this  connection,  full  play  should  be  given  to  the 
suspicion  that  a  hidden  meaning  attaches  to  the  ceremony.  This 
would  appear  to  be  the  view  entertained  by  the  indefatigable  missiou- 
ary,  De  Smet,  who  records  such  a  custom  among  the  Flatheads  and 
Crows  in  1846  :  "  To  render  the  odor  of  the  pacific  incense  agreeable  to 
their  gods  it  is  necessary  that  the  tobacco  and  the  herb  (skwiltz),  the 
usual  ingredients,  should  be  mixed  with  a  small  quantity  of  buffalo 
dung."  * 

The  Sioux,  Cheyennes,  Arapahoes,  and  others  of  the  plains  tribes,  to 
whom  the  buffalo  is  a  god,  have  the  same  or  an  almost  similar  custom. 

The  Hottentots,  when  in  want  of  tobacco,  "  smoke  the  dung  of  the 
two-horned  rhinoceros  or  of  elephants." — (Thurnberg's  Account  of 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  quoted  in  Pinkerton,  vol,  xvi.  p.  141.) 

The  followers  of  the  Grand  Lama,  as  already  noted,  make  use  of  his 
dried  excrements  as  snuff,  and  an  analogous  employment  of  the  dried 
dung  of  swine  retained  a  place  in  the  medical  practice  of  Europe  until 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  and  may,  perhaps,  still  survive 
in  the  Folk-medicine  of  isolated  villages. 

The  people  of  Achaia  say  "that  the  smoke  of  dried  cow  dung,  that 
of  the  animal  when  grazing  I  mean,  is  remarkably  good  for  phthisis, 
inhaled  through  a  reed." —  (Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  67.) 

Dung  is  also  used  in  Central  Africa.  "  A  huge  bowl  is  filled  with 
tobacco  and  clay  and  sometimes  with  a  questionable  mixture,  the 
fumes  are  inhaled  until  the  smoker  falls  stupefied  or  deadly  sick  — 
this  effect  alone  being  sought  for."  —  ("  Central  Africa,"  Chaillc  Long, 
p.  266.) 

1  Father  De  Smet,  "Oregon  Missions,"  New  York,  1847,  p.  383. 


ORDURE  IN   SMOKING.  215 

"  In  Algeria,  gazelle  droppings  are  put  in  snufF  and  smoking  tobacco  ; 
the  Mongol  Tartars  mix  the  ashes  of  yak  manure  with  their  snufF."  — 
(Personal  letter  from  W.  W.  Kockhill.) 

Mr.  Rudyard  Kipling  shows  in  his  "Plain  Tales  from  the  Hills" 
("Miss  Youghal's  Sais  ")  that  the  native  population  of  India  is  accus- 
tomed to  use  a  mixture  of  one  part  of  tobacco  to  three  of  cow-dung. 


216  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XXX. 

COURTSHIP  AND   MARRIAGE. 

"  'T^O  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth,"  was  the  first  command 
given  to  man ;  to  love,  and  to  desire  to  be  loved  in  return,  is 
the  strongest  impulse  of  our  nature,  and  therefore  it  need  surprise  no 
student  who  sets  about  investigating  the  occult  properties  attributed 
to  the  human  and  animal  egestse  to  find  them  in  very  general  use  in 
the  composition  of  love-philters,  as  antidotes  to  such  philters,  as 
aphrodisiacs,  as  antiphrodisiacs,  and  as  aids  to  delivery. 

ORDURE    IN    LOVE-PHILTERS. 

Love-sick  maidens  in  France  stand  accused  of  making  as  a  philter  a 
cake  into  whose  composition  entered  "nameless  ingredients,"  which 
confection,  being  eaten  by  the  refractory  lover,  soon  caused  a  revival 
of  his  waning  affections.*  This  was  considered  to  savor  so  strongly  of 
witchcraft  that  it  was  interdicted  by  councils. 

The  witches  and  wizards  of  the  Apache  tribe  make  a  confection  or 
philter,  one  of  the  ingredients  of  which  is  generally  human  ordure,  as 
the  author  learned  from  some  of  them  a  few  years  since.  The  Nava- 
joes,  of  same  blood  and  language  as  the  Apaches,  employ  the  dung  of 
cows  (as  related  in  the  "Snake  Dance  of  the  Moquis,"  p.  27.) 

Frommann  gives  an  instance  of  a  woman  who  made  love-philters 
out  of  her  own  excrement.  As  late  as  Frommann's  day,  the  use  of 
such  philters  was  punishable  with  death.  The  remedies  for  love- 
philters  were  composed  of  human  skull,  coral,  verbena  flowers, 
secundines,  or  after-birth,  and  a  copious  flow  of  urine.  He  says  that 
Paracelsus  taught  that  when  one  person  ate  or  drank  anything  given 

1  "  Le  mal^fice  amoureux  ou  le  philtre  "  is  defined  as  follows  :  "  Telle  est  la  pra- 
tique de  certaiiies  femmes  et  de  certaines  filles,  qui,  pour  obliger  leurs  galans  .  .  . 
de  les  aimer  comme  auparavaut  .  .  .  les  font  manger  du  gateau  ou  elles  ont  mis 
des  ordures  que  ,je  ne  veux  pas  nommer." — (Jean  Baptiste  Thiers,  "Traite  des 
Supei-stitions,"  Paris,  1741,  p.  150.) 


COURTSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE.  217 

ofif  by  the  skin  of  another,  he  would  fall  desperately  in  love  with  that 
other.  "  Quod  illi,  qui  ederunt  aut  biberunt  aliquid  a  scorte  datum, 
in  amorem  alicujus  conjiciantur  et  rapiantur."  (Frommann,  "  Trac- 
tatus  de  Fascination e,"  pp.  820,  826,  970,  quoting  Paracelsus,  Tract.  1, 
de  Morbis  Amantium,  cap.  v.)  He  also  cites  Beckherius  to  the  effect 
that  some  philters  were  made  of  perspiration,  menses,  or  semen. — 
(Idem,  quoting  Beckherius,  "  Sapgyr.  Microc,"  p.  89.) 

John  Leo,  in  Purchas  (vol.  ii.  p.  850),  speaks  of  "  the  roote  Sumay 
growing  also  upon  the  Western  part  of  Mount  Atlas.  .  .  .  The  inhab- 
itants of  Mount  Atlas  doe  commonly  report  that  many  of  those  da- 
mosels  which  keepe  Cattell  upon  the  said  Mountaines,  lose  their  Vir- 
ginitie  by  no  other  occasion  than  by  making  water  upon  said  Roote. 
.  .  .  This  roote  is  said  to  be  comfortable  and  preserliatiue  unto  the 
priuie  partes  of  man,  and  being  drunk  in  an  Electuary  to  stirre  up 
Venereal  lust." 

Reginald  Scot  mentions  a  "  Wolves  yard  "  among  the  ingredients  in 
a  love-philter.  —  ("Discoverie  of  Witchecraft,"  London,  1651,  p.  62.) 

Human  ordure  was  in  constant  use  in  the  manufacture  of  these 
philters,  being  administered  both  internally  and  externally.  On  this 
point  it  may  be  proper  to  give  the  exact  words  of  Schurig,  who  ex- 
plains that  it  was  sometimes  put  in  porridge,  and  in  other  cases  in  the 
shoes.  In  the  last  example,  the  man  who  made  such  use  of  the 
excrement  of  his  lady  love  was  completely  cured  of  his  infatuation, 
after  wearing  the  defiled  shoes  one  hour.  "  Contra  Philtrae  tam  in- 
terne quam  externe  adhiberi  solet  amatse  puellse  stercus,  ab  exsiccato 
enim  atque  in  pulmento  personae  philtratae  exhibito  amorem  in  max- 
imam  antipathiam  rautatam  annotavit  Eberhardus  Gockelius.  .  .  . 
etiam  Capitanei  cujusdam  meminit  qui,  postquam  amasiae  stercus 
novis  calceis  imposuerat,  posteaque  iisdem  per  integram  horam  spatia- 
tus  fuerat  ab  illius  amore  liberabatur." —  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  774.) 

Leopax'd-dung  was  in  repute  as  an  aphrodisiac. —  (Idem,  p.  820.) 

"  The  urine  that  has  been  voided  by  a  bull  immediately  after  cover- 
ing .  .  .  taken  in  drink,"  as  an  aphrodisiac;  and  "the  groin  well 
rubbed  with  earth  moistened  with  this  urine."  —  (Pliny,  Bohn,  lib. 
xxviii.  cap.  80.) 

"The  wizard,  witch,  sorcerer,  druggist,  doctor,  or  medicine  man 
.  .  .  played  the  part  of  an  ochreous  Cupid.  Instead  of  smiles  and 
bright  eyes,  his  dealings  were  with  some  nasty  stuff  put  into  beer,  or 
spread  slyly  upon  bread.  ...  In  the  Shroft  book  of  Egbert,  Arcli- 
bishop  of  York,  one  of  their  methods  is  censured  j  and  it  is  so  filthy 


218  SCATALOGIC  RITES  OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

that  I  must  leave  it  in  the  obscurity  of  the  original  old  Euglish."  — 
("  Saxou  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  45.) 

An  ointment  of  the  gall  of  goats,  incense,  goat-dung,  and  nettle- 
seeds  was  applied  to  the  privy  parts  previous  to  copulation  to  increase 
the  amorousness  of  women.  —  (See  "Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  351, 
quoting  Sextus  Placitus.) 

"  Love-charms  are  made  of  ingredients  too  disgusting  to  mention, 
and  are  given  by  the  Mussulmans  to  women  to  persuade  them  to  love 
them."  —  ("  ludo-Mahomedan  Folk-Lore,"  No.  3,  H.  C,  p.  180,  in 
"Notes  and  Queries,"  3d  series,  vol.  xi.,  London,  1867.) 

Vambery  has  this  obscure  passage  :  "  The  good  woman  had  the 
happy  idea  to  prescribe  to  the  sick  Khan  five  hundred  doses  of  that 
medicine  said  to  have  worked  such  beneficial  effects  upon  the  renowned 
poet-monarch  of  ancient  history.  .  .  .  The  Khan  of  Khiva  took  from 
fifty  to  sixty  of  these  pills  *  for  impuissauce.' "  —  ("  Travels  in  Central 
Asia,"  New  York,  1865,  p.  166.) 

Besides  these  elements  there  were  employed  others  equally  dis- 
gusting ;  for  example,  the  catamenial  fluid,  which  seems  to  have 
been  in  high  repute  for  such  purposes :  "  Quaedani  auditas  sunt  jac- 
tautes  se  sua  excrementa  propinasse,  prsecipue  menstrua,  quibus  cogaut 
se  amari." —  ("  Saxon  Leeclidoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  45,  quoting  Ca^salpinus, 
"Dsemonum  Investigatio,"  fol.  154  b.     Csesalpinus  died  in  1603.) 

"  He  has  taken  the  enchanted  philter,  and  soiled  my  garment  with 
it."  —  ("Chaldean  Magic,"  Lenormant,  London,  1877,  p.  61,  quoting 
an  Incantation  of  the  Chaldean  sorcerers.  It  is,  of  course,  a  matter  of 
impossibility  to  tell  of  what  this  philter  was  composed.) 

"  They  say  that  if  a  man  takes  a  frog,  and  transfixes  it  with  a  reed 
entering  its  body  at  the  sexual  parts,  and  coming  out  at  the  mouth, 
and  then  dips  the  reed  in  the  menstrual  discharge  of  his  wife,  she  will 
be  sure  to  conceive  an  aversion  for  all  paramours."  —  (Pliny,  lib.  xxxii. 
cap.  13.) 

"  Sanguis  menstruus,  qui,  a  Paracelso  vocatur  Zenith  Juvencularum  ; 
hie  primus  virginis  impollutae  multa  in  se  habet  arcana  non  semper 
revelanda.  Ut  autem  pauca  adducam,  extreme  linteum  a  primo  san- 
guine menstruo  madidum  et  exsiccatum,  banc  denuo  humectatum  et 
applicatum  pedi  podagraci,  mirum  quantum  lenit  dolores  podagrae. 
Idem  linteum,  si  applicetur  parti  Erysipelate  affectse,  incontinenti  ery- 
sipelas curat.  In  affectibus  ab  incantationibus  et  veneficiis  oriuudis 
multa  prsestat  sanguis  menstruus ;  nam  et  ipse  sanguis  menstruus  ad 
veneficia  adhibetur,  et  sunt  mulieres,  quae  pro  philtris  utuutur  san- 


COURTSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE.  219 

guine  8U0  meustruo."  He  instances  such  a  philter,  made  with  men- 
strual and  a  hare's  blood,  which  drove  the  recipient  to  mania  and 
suicide.  It  was  further  used  to  make  people  "  impenetrable  "  to  an 
enemy's  weapon,  and  to  cure  burning  sores.  (See  Michael  Etmuller, 
"  Opera  Omnia,"  vol.  ii.  p.  270,  art.  "  Schrod.  Dilucid.  Zoijlogia.") 

A  medical  student  was  frequently  courted  by  his  neighbor's  daugh- 
ter, but  he  disregarded  her  advances.  At  one  time,  however,  he  slept 
with  the  brother  of  the  girl  in  her  father's  house,  and  after  that  was 
so  infatuated  that  he  would  rise  at  midnight  to  kiss  the  jambs  of  the 
door  of  her  house.  Some  time  afterwards,  he  sent  his  clothes  to  a 
tailor  to  be  mended,  and,  sewed  up  iu  his  trousers,  was  found  a  little 
bundle  of  hair  from  an  unmentionable  part  of  the  girl's  body,  con- 
taining the  initials  S.  T.  I.  A.  M.,  which  were  by  some  interpreted 
to  mean  "Sathanas  te  trahat  in  amorem  mei."  As  soon  as  this  little 
bunch  of  hair  was  burned,  the  poor  fellow  had  rest.  —  (Paulliui,  pp. 
258,  259.) 

Human  semen  was  equally  used  for  the  very  same  purpose.  There 
is  nothing  to  show  whether  male  lovers  used  this  ingredient,  and 
maidens  the  menstrual  liquid,  or  both  indiscriminately ;  but  it  seems 
plausible  to  believe  that  each  sex  adhered  to  its  own  excretion. 

"Semen,  f.  Sperma,  uon  modo  comperimus  per  se  a  nonnullis  ad 
veneris  scilicet  ligaturam  maleficam  dissolvendam,  sed  et  Momiam 
magneticam  inde  fieri  quae  amoris  concilietur  fervor.  Quin  et  homun- 
culum  suum  inde  meditatur  Paracelsus." —  (Etmuller,  "  Opera  Omnia," 
voh  ii.  p.  266.) 

Semen,  Beckherius  informs  us,  was  used  in  breaking  down  "  Liga- 
tures" placed  by  witches  or  the  devil,  and  in  restoring  impaired 
virility.  But  it  was  sometimes  employed  in  a  manner  savoring  so 
strongly  of  impiety  that  Beckherius  preferred  not  to  speak  further. — 
("  Medicus  Microcosmus,"  p.  122.) 

Flemming  tells  us  that  we  should  not  pass  over  in  silence  the  fact 
that  human  seed  has  been  employed  by  some  persons  as  medicine. 
They  believed  that  its  magnetic  power  could  be  used  in  philters,  and 
that  by  it  a  lover  could  feed  the  flame  of  his  mistress's  affections ; 
hence  from  it  was  pi'epared  what  was  known  as  "  magnetic  mummy," 
which,  being  given  to  a  woman,  threw  her  into  an  inextinguishable 
frensy  of  love  for  the  man  or  animal  yielding  it,  —  a  suggestion  of 
animal  worship.  Others  credited  it  with  a  wonderful  efficacy  in  re- 
lieving inveterate  epilepsy,  or  restoring  virility  impaired  by  incanta- 
tion or  witchcraft ;  for  which  purpose  it  was  used  while  still  fresh, 


220  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

before  exposure  to  the  air,  in  pottage,  mixed  with  the  powder  of  mace. 
Flemming  alludes  to  a  horrible  use  of  relics,  good  and  bad,  ujjon  which 
human  semen  had  been  ejaculated  ;  but  this  involved  so  much  of  the 
grossest  impiety  that  he  declined  to  enter  into  full  details.  —  ("Do 
Eemediis  ex  Corpore  Humano  desumtis,"  Samuel  Augustus  Flemming, 
Erfurt,  1738,  p.  22.) 

The  love-philter  described  in  the  preceding  paragraph  recalls  a  some- 
what analogous  practice  among  the  Manicheans,  whose  eucharistic 
bread  was  incorporated  or  sprinkled  with  human  semen,  possibly  with 
the  idea  that  the  bread  of  life  should  be  sprinkled  with  the  life-giving 
excretion.^ 

The  Albigenses,  or  Catharistes,  their  descendants,  are  alleged  to 
Lave  degenerated  into  or  to  have  preserved  the  same  vile  superstition.^ 

Understanding  that  these  allegations  proceed  from  hostile  sources, 
their  insertion  in  this  category  has  been  permitted  only  upon  the  theory 
that  as  the  Manichean  ethics  and  ritual  present  resemblances  to  both 
the  Parsee  and  Buddhist  religions  (from  which  they  may  to  some  ex- 
tent have  originated),  there  is  reason  for  supposing  that  ritualistic 
ablutions,  aspersions,  and  other  practices  analogous  to  those  of  the 
great  sect  farther  to  the  east,  may  have  been  transmitted  to  the  younger 
religion  in  Europe. 

The  following  is  taken  from  an  episcopal  letter  of  Burchard,  Bishop 
of  Worms  :  — 

"  N'avez  vous  pas  fait  ce  que  certaines  femmes  ont  coutume  de  faire  1 
Elles  se  depouillent  de  leurs  habits,  oignent  leur  corps  nu  avec  du 
miel,  ^tendent  k  terre  un  drap,  sur  lequel  elles  repandent  du  bled,  se 
roulent  dessus  h,  plusieurs  reprises ;  puis  elles  recueillent  avec  soin  tons 

1  Qua  oocasione  vel  potius  execrabilis  superstitionis  quadam  necessitate  coguntur 
electi  eomm  velut  eucharistiam  conspersam  cum  semine  humano  sumere.  —  (Saint 
Augustine,  quoted  by  Bayle,  "  Philosophical  Dictionary,"  English  edition,  London, 
1737,  article  "Manicheans.") 

'■^  Les  Catharistes  qui  etoient  une  espece  choisis  de  Manicheens,  petrissoient  le 
pain  Eucharistique  avec  la  semence  humaine. — (Thiers,  "  Sui)erstitious,"  etc., 
Paris,  1741,  vol.  ii.  lib.  2,  chap.  i.  p.  216  ;  and  Picart,  "Coutumes  et  Ceremonies, 
etc.,  Amsterdam,  1729,  vol.  viii.  p.  79.) 

E.  B.  Tylor  says  that  "  about  A.  D.  700  John  of  Osun,  patriarch  of  Armenia, 
wrote  a  diatribe  against  the  sect  of  Paulicians  "  (who  were  believed  to  be  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Manicheans,  and  in  turn  to  have  transmitted  their  doctrines  to  the 
Albigenses).  In  the  course  of  tlie  diatribe  the  patriarch  declares  that  "they  mix 
wheaten  flour  with  the  blood  of  infants,  and  therewith  celebrate  their  communion." 
—  (E.  B.  Tylor,  "Primitive  Culture,"  London,  1871,  vol.  i.  p.  69.) 


COURTSHIP  AND   MARRIAGE.  221 

Ics  grains  qui  se  sont  attaches  a  leur  corps,  les  mettent  sur  la  meule 
qu'elles  font  tourner  a  rebours.  Quand  ils  sont  r^duits  en  farine,  ellcs 
en  font  nn  pain  qu'elles  donnent  k  manger  k  leurs  maris  afin  qu'ils 
s'affaiblissent  et  qu'ils  meurent.  Si  vous  I'avez  fait,  vous  ferez  peni- 
tence pendant  quarante  jours  aii  pain  et  k  I'eau.  ,  .  .  Fecisti  quod 
qutEdam  mulieres  facere  solent?  Tollunt  menstruum  suum  sanguincm 
et  immiscent  cibo  vel  potui,  et  dant  viris  suis  ad  manducandum  vel 
ad  bibendura,  ut  plus  diligantur  ab  eis.  .  .  .  Fecisti  quod  quaedam 
mulieres  facere  solent '?  Prosternunt  se  in  faciem,  et  discoopertis  natibus, 
jubent  ut  supra  nudas  nates,  conficiatur  panis,  et  eo  decocto  tradunt 
maritis  suis  ad  coraedendum.  Hoc  ideo  faciunt  ut  plus  exardescant  in 
amorem  illarum.     Si  fecisti  duos  annos  per  legitimas  ferias  poenitias. 

—  (Dulaure,  "  Traite  des  DifFerens  Cultes,"  vol.  it.  p.  262  et  seq.) 

The  method  of  divination  by  which  maidens  strove  to  rekindle  the 
expiring  flames  of  affection  in  the  hearts  of  husbands  and  lovers  by 
making  cake  from  dough  kneaded  on  the  woman's  posterior,  as  given 
in  preceding  paragraph,  seems  to  have  held  on  in  England  as  a  game 
among  little  girls,  in  which  one  lies  down  on  the  floor,  on  her  back, 
rolling  backwards  and  forwards,  and  repeating  the  following  lines:  — 

"  Cockledy  bread,  mistley  cake, 
"When  you  do  that  for  our  sake." 

While  one  of  the  party  so  lay  down  the  rest  of  the  party  sat  round  ; 
they  lay  down  and  rolled  in  this  manner  by  turns. 

Cockle  Bread.  This  singular  game  is  thus  described  by  Aubray  and 
Kennett :  *'  Young  wenches  have  a  wanton  sport  which  they  call 
'moulding  of  cockle  bread,'  viz.:  they  get  upon  a  table-board,  and 
then  gather  up  their  knees  as  high  as  they  can,  and  then  they  wobble 
to  and  fro,  as  if  they  were  kneading  of  dough,  and  say  these  words  : 

'  My  dame  is  sick,  and  gone  to  bed, 
And  I  '11  go  mould  my  cockle  bread, 
Up  with  my  heels,  and  down  with  my  head  !  — 
And  this  is  the  way  to  mould  cockle  bread.' 

—  (Quoted  in  Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  ii.  p.  414,  article 
"Cockle  Bread.") 

These  words  "  mistley  "  and  "  cockledy  "  were  not  to  be  found  in 
any  of  the  lexicons  examined,  or  in  the  "  Dictionary  of  Obsolete  and 
Provincial  English  "  of  Thomas  Wright,  M.  A.,  London,  1869,  although 
in  the  last  was  the  word  "  mizzly  "  meaning  "  mouldy."  It  may  pos- 
sibly mean  mistletoe. 


222  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

"  Cockle  is  the  unhappy  *  lolium  *  of  Virgil,  thought,  if  mixed  with 
bread,  to  produce  vertigo  and  headache ;  therefore,  at  Easter,  parties 
are  made  to  pick  it  out  from  the  wheat.  They  take  with  them  cake, 
cider,  and  toasted  cheese.  The  first  person  who  picks  the  cockle 
from  the  wheat  has  the  first  kiss  of  the  maid  and  the  first  slice 
of  the  cake."  —  (Fosbroke,  "  Eucyclopsedia  of  Antiquities,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  1040.) 

Vallencey  describes  a  very  curious  ceremony  among  the  Irish  in  the 
month  of  September.  "  Ou  the  eve  of  the  full  moon  of  September 
.  .  .  straw  is  burnt  to  embers,  and  in  the  embers  each  swain  in  turn 
hides  a  grain,  crying  out,  '  I  '11  tear  you  to  pieces  if  you  find  my  grain.' 
His  maiden  lover  seeks,  and  great  is  her  chagrin  if  she  does  not  find  it. 
On  producing  it,  she  is  saluted  by  the  company  with  shouts ;  her  lover 
lays  her  first  on  her  back,  and  draws  her  by  the  heels  through  the 
embers,  then  turning  her  on  her  face  repeats  the  ceremony  until  her 
nudities  ai-e  much  scorched.  This  is  called  posadamin,  or  the  meal- 
wedding.  .  .  .  When  all  the  maidens  have  gone  through  this  cere- 
mony, they  sit  down  and  devour  the  roasted  wheat,  with  which  they 
are  sometimes  inebriated."  —  ("  De  Rebus  Hibernicis,"  vol.  ii.  p.  559.) 

He  undoubtedly  means  ergot ;  be  himself  says  that  it  is  "  a  grain 
that  is  sometimes  found  growing  amongst  the  wheat  in  Ireland."  He 
also  calls  these  "  weddings  "  a  "  Druidical  custom." —  (Idem,  p.  598.) 

A  similar  phallic  dance  is  alluded  to  in  John  Graham  Dalyell's 
♦'Superstitions  of  Scotland,"  Edinburgh,  1834,  p.  219. 

In  Sardinia  "  the  village  swains  go  about  in  a  group  ...  to  wait  for 
the  girls  who  assemble  on  the  public  square  to  celebrate  the  festival. 
Here  a  great  bonfire  is  kindled,  round  which  they  dance  and  make 
merry.  Those  who  wish  to  be  '  sweethearts  of  Saint  John  '  act  as  fol- 
lows :  The  young  man  stands  on  one  side  of  the  bonfire,  and  the  girl 
on  the  other ;  and  they,  in  a  manner,  join  bands  by  each  grasping  a 
long  stick,  which  they  pass  three  times  backwards  and  forwards  across 
the  fire,  thus  thrusting  their  hands  thrice  rapidly  into  the  flames." 
At  this  dance,  we  read  of  "  a  Priapus-like  figure,  made  of  paste  ;  but 
this  custom,  rigorously  forbidden  by  the  Church,  has  fallen  into  dis- 
use." ("  The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  291.)  "  In  some  parts 
of  Germany  young  men  and  girls  leap  over  midsummer  bonfires  for 
the  express  purpose  of  making  the  hemp  or  flax  grow  tall."  —  (Idem, 
p.  293.) 

"  Amongst  the  Kara-Kirghis  barren  women  roll  themselves  on  the 
ground  under  a  solitary  apple-tree  in  order  to  obtain  offspring."    (Idem, 


COURTSHIP  AND   MARRIAGE.  223 

vol.  i.  p.  73.)  That  this  is  a  manifestation  of  tree  worship,  the  author 
leaves  us  no  room  to  doubt ;  and  a  consultation  of  his  text  will  be  re- 
warded by  several  examples  of  a  still  more  definite  character,  —  such 
as  marriage  with  trees,  wearing  the  bark  as  a  garment  in  the  hope  of 
progeny,  etc. 

Hoffman  mentions  a  widow  among  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  who 
"  became  impressed  with  a  boatman  with  whom  she  casually  became 
acquainted,  and  as  he  evinced  no  response  to  her  numerous  manifesta- 
tions of  regard,  she  adopted  the  following  method  to  compel  him  to 
love  her,  even  against  his  will.  With  the  blade  of  a  penknife  she  scraped 
her  knee  until  she  had  secured  a  small  quantity  of  the  cuticle,  baked  it 
in  a  specially  prepared  cake,  and  sent  it  to  him,  though  with  what  re- 
sult is  not  known.  The  woman  was  known  to  have  the  utmost  faith 
in  the  charm."  —  ("  Folk-Medicine  of  Pennsylvania  Germans,"  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society,  1889.) 

"I  was  at  Madrid  in  1784.  ...  A  beggar,  who  generally  took  his 
stand  at  the  door  of  a  church,  had  employed  his  leisure  in  inventing 
and  selling  a  species  of  powder  to  which  he  attributed  miraculous 
effects.  It  was  composed  of  ingredients  the  mention  of  which  would 
make  the  reader  blush.  The  beggar  had  drawn  up  some  singular  for- 
mularies to  be  repeated  at  the  time  of  taking  the  powder,  and  required, 
to  give  it  its  effect,  that  those  who  took  it  should  put  themselves  into 
certain  postures  more  readily  imagined  than  described.  His  composi- 
tion was  one  of  those  amorous  philtres  in  which  our  ignorant  ances- 
tors had  so  much  faith  ;  his,  he  pretended,  had  the  power  of  restoring 
a  disgusted  lover  and  of  softening  the  heart  of  a  cruel  fair  one."  — 
(Bourgoanne's  "Travels  in  Spain,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  v.  p.  413.) 

"  When  a  young  man  is  trying  to  win  the  love  of  a  reluctant  girl  he 
consults  the  medicine-man,  who  then  tries  to  find  some  of  the  urine 
and  saliva  which  the  girl  has  voided,  as  well  as  the  sand  upon 
which  it  has  fallen.  He  mixes  these  with  a  few  twigs  of  certain  woods, 
and  places  them  in  a  gourd,  and  gives  them  to  the  young  man,  who 
takes  them  home,  and  adds  a  portion  of  tobacco.  In  about  an  hour 
he  takes  out  the  tobacco  and  gives  it  to  the  girl  to  smoke ;  this  effects 
a  complete  transformation  in  her  feelings."  —  ("  Conversation  with 
Muhongo,"  an  African  boy  from  Angola,  translated  by  Eev.  Mr. 
Chatelain.) 

Lovers  who  wished  to  increase  the  affections  of  their  mistresses  were 
recommended  to  try  a  transfusion  of  their  own  blood  into  the  loved 
one's  veins. —  (Flemming,  "De  Remediis,"  etc.,  p.  15.) 


224  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

See  notes  tf,ken  from  Flemming,  under  "  Perspiration ;  "  also  under 
"  After-Birth  and  Woman's  Milk,"  and  under  "  Catamenial  Fluid." 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher  may  have  had  such  customs  in  mind  when 
writing  "  Wit  without  Money." 

"  Ralph.  Pray,  empty  my  right  shoe,  that  you  made  your  chamber- 
pot, and  burn  some  rosemary  in  it." —  (v.  i.) 

Rosemary,  like  juniper  (q.  v.),  was  extensively  used  for  disinfecting 
sleeping  apartments. 

AXTI-PHILTERS. 

To  protect  the  population  from  the  baleful  effects  of  the  love-philter, 
there  was,  fortunately,  the  anti-philter,  in  which,  strangely  enough,  we 
come  upon  the  same  ingredients.  Thus  mouse-dung,  applied  in  "the 
form  of  a  liniment,  acts  as  an  antiphrodisiac,"  according  to  Pliny 
(lib.  xxviii.  cap.  80).  "  A  lizard  drowned  in  urine  has  the  effect  of  an 
antiphrodisiac  upon  the  man  whose  urine  it  is."  (Idem,  lib.  xxx.  cap. 
49.)  *'  The  same  property  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  excrement  of  snails 
and  pigeon's  dung,  taken  with  oil  and  wine."  —  (Idem.) 

A  powerful  antiphrodisiac  was  made  of  the  urine  of  a  bull  and  the 
ashes  of  a  plant  called  "brya."  "The  charcoal  too  of  this  wood  is 
quenched  in  urine  of  a  similar  nature,  and  kept  in  a  shady  spot.  When 
it  is  the  intention  of  the  party  to  rekindle  the  flames  of  desire,  it  is 
set  on  fire  again.  The  magicians  say  that  the  urine  of  a  eunuch  will 
have  a  similar  effect."  —  (Idem,  lib.  xxiv.  cap.  42.) 

"  According  to  Osthanes  ...  a  woman  will  forget  her  former  love 
by  taking  a  he-goat's  urine  in  drink."  —  (Idem,  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  77.) 

Hen-dung  was  an  antidote  against  philters,  especially  those  made 
of  menstrual  blood.  "Contra  Philtra  magica,  in  specie  ex  sanguine 
menstruo  femineo."  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  81 G,  817.)  Dove-dung  was  also 
administered  for  the  same  purpose,  but  was  not  quite  so  efficacious. 

A  journeyman  cabinet-maker  had  been  given  a  love-potion  by  a 
young  woman,  so  that  he  could  n't  keep  away  from  her.  His  mother 
then  bought  a  pair  of  new  shoes  for  him,  put  into  them  certain  herbs, 
and  in  them  he  had  to  run  to  a  certain  town.  A  can  of  urine  was 
then  put  into  his  right  shoe,  out  of  which  he  drank,  whereupon  he  per- 
fectly despised  the  object  of  his  former  affection. 

A  prostitute  gave  a  love-potion  to  a  captain  in  the  army.  Some  of 
her  ordure  was  placed  in  a  new  shoe,  and  after  he  had  walked  therein 
an  hour,  and  had  his  fill  of  the  smell,  the  spell  was  broken.  Paullini 
here  quotes  Ovid,  — 


COURTSHIP  AND   MARRIAGE.  225 

"  Jlle  tuas  redolens  Pbineu  medicamina  mensas 
Non  semel  est  stomacho  nausea  facta  meo." 

A  man  was  given  in  his  food  some  of  the  dried  ordure  of  a  woman 
whom  he  formerly  loved,  and  that  created  a  terrible  antipathy  toward 
her.  —  (Paullini,  p.  258.) 

"  The  seeds  of  the  tamarisk  mixed  in  a  drink  or  meat  with  the  urine 
of  a  castrated  ox  will  put  an  end  to  Venus."  —  ("  Saxon  Leechdoras," 
vol.  i.  p.  43,  quoting  Pliny,  lib.  21,  c.  92.) 

"  Galenos  says  that  the  priests  eat  rue  and  agnus  castus,  it  seems, 
as  a  refrigerative."  —  (Idem,  p.  43.) 

The  herb  rue  was  used  by  the  Romans  as  an  amulet  against  witch- 
craft, and  was  also  employed  in  the  exorcisms  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church. — (Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  315,  article 
"  Rural  Charms.") 

An  examination  of  the  best  available  authorities  upon  the  properties 
of  this  plant  disclosed  the  following:  "It  was  formerly  called  'herb  of 
grace '  (see  Hamlet,  act  iv.  scene  5),  because  it  was  used  for  sprinkling 
the  people  with  holy  water.  It  was  in  great  repute  among  the 
ancients,  having  been  hung  about  the  neck  as  an  amulet  against  witch- 
craft, in  the  time  of  Aristotle.  ...  It  is  a  powerful  stimulant." 
(Chambers's  Encyclopaedia,  article  "  Rue.")  "Rue  is  stimulant  and 
anti-spasmodic ;  .  .  .  occasionally  increases  the  secretions.  ...  It  ap- 
pears to  have  a  tendency  to  act  upon  the  uterus ;  ...  in  moderate 
doses  proving  emmenagogue,  and  in  larger  producing  a  degree  of  irrita- 
tion in  the  organ  which  sometimes  determines  abortion ;  .  .  .  taken 
by  pregnant  women,  .  .  .  miscarriage  resulted ;  .  .  .  used  in  amenor- 
rhcea  and  in  uterine  hemorrhages."  ("  United  States  Dispensatory," 
Philadelphia,  1886,  article  "  Ruta.")  Here  are  presented  almost  the 
same  conditions  as  were  found  in  the  mistletoe,  —  the  plant  had  a 
direct,  irritant  action  upon  the  genito-urinary  organs,  and  in  all  prob- 
ability was  employed  to  induce  the  sacred  urination  and  to  asperse 
the  congregation  with  the  fluid  for  which  holy  water  was  afterwards 
substituted. 

Rue  and  agnus  castus  are  mentioned  by  Avicenna  as  medicines 
which  "coitus  desiderium  sedant."  (Vol.  i.  pp.  266,  b  45,  406,  a60.) 
The  same  author  (vol.  i.  p.  906,  a  63)  mentions  rue  with  the  testicles 
of  a  fox  as  an  Aphrodisiac,  and  the  testicles  of  the  goat  are  mentioned 
in  the  same  connection.  —  (Idem,  p.  907,  b  67.) 

Dulaure  (*'  Des  Diff'erens  Cultes,"  vol.  ii.  p.  288)  speaks  of  certain 
"fasciniers"  or  charlatans,  who  vended  secretly  love-philters  to  bar- 

15 


226  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

ren  women.  "  lis  prononcaient  pour  operer  leurs  charmes  des  mots 
latiDS  et  avaieut  I'intention  de  fixer  dans  les  alimeus  des  epoux  une 
poudre  proveuaut  des  parties  sexuelles  d'un  loup." 

Beckherius  repeats  the  antidote  for  a  love-philter  of  placing  some  of 
the  woman's  ordure  in  the  man's  shoe  ;  "Si,  in  amantis  calceum,  ster- 
cus  amataj  ponatur ; "  and  he  also  cites  the  couplet  from  Ovid  already 
quoted,  p.  225. 

"  Secundines  "  were  also  employed  to  render  abortive  the  effects  of 
philters.  (See  EtmuUer,  "  Opera  Omnia,"  Schroderi  dilucidati  Zoii- 
logia,  vol.  ii.  p.  265.)  "In  philtris  curandis  spiritus  secundinse  vel 
pulvis  secundinsp  mirabilis  facit."  This  was  of  great  use  in  epilepsy, 
but  should  be,  if  possible,  "  secundinam  mulieris  sanae,  si  potest  esse 
primiparse  et  quae  filium  enixa  fuit."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  271.) 

Against  philters,  as  well  as  to  counteract  the  efforts  of  witches  at- 
tacking people  just  entering  the  married  state,  by  such  maleticent 
means  as  "  ligatures,"  and  other  obstacles,  ordure  was  facile  princeps 
us  a  remedy.  Likewise,  to  break  up  a  love  affair,  nothing  was  superior 
to  the  simple  charm  of  placing  some  of  the  ordure  of  the  person  seek- 
ing to  break  away  from  love's  thraldom  in  the  shoe  of  the  one  still 
faithful.  It  is  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  this  remedy  would 
be  found  potential  even  in  our  own  times,  if  faithfully  applied.  "  Con- 
tra philtra,  item  pro  ligatis  et  maleficiatis  a  mulieribus  sequens  Jo- 
hannes Jacobus  Weckerus  .  .  .  pone  de  egestione  sen  alvi  excremento 
ipsius  mulieris  mane  in  fotulari  dextro  maleficiati  et  statim  cum  ipse 
sentiet  foetorum  solvitur  maleficium.  .  .  .  Quod  si  in  amantis  calceum 
stercus  amata)  posueris,  ubi  odorem  senserit,  solvitur  amor,"  etc.  (sev- 
eral examples  are  given).  —  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  791.) 

Mr.  Chrisfield,  of  the  Library  of  Congress,  Washington,  D.  C,  im- 
parts a  fact  which  dovetails  in  with  the  foregoing  item  in  a  very  inter- 
esting manner.  He  says  that,  in  his  youth,  which  was  passed  on  the 
Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  he  learned  that,  among  the  more  ignorant 
classes  of  that  section  it  was  a  rule  that  when  a  father  observed  the 
growing  affection  of  his  son  for  some  young  girl,  he  should  endeavor 
to  obtain  a  little  of  her  excrement,  and  make  the  youth  wear  it  under 
the  left  arm-pit ;  if  he  remained  constant  in  his  devotion  after  being 
subjected  to  this  test,  the  father  felt  that  it  would  be  useless  to  inter- 
pose objection  to  the  nuptials. 

There  is  a  case  mentioned  in  Scotland  in  which  "  aversion  was  in- 
spired on  the  part  of  the  female."  To  remedy  this  "the  man  got  a 
cake  "  (ingredients  not  mentioned)  "  to  be  put  under  his  left  arm,  be- 


COURTSHIP   AND   MARRIAGE.  227 

twixt  his  shirt  and  his  skin,  observing  silence,  until  the  nuptial  couch 
was  sprinkled  with  water  and  the  mystical  cake  withdrawn."  —  (Super- 
stitions of  Scotland,"  Dalyell,  p.  305.) 

One  might  safely  wager  guineas  to  shillings  that,  in  the  above  exam- 
ple the  mystical  cake  was  the  legitimate  descendant  of  one  formerly 
compounded  of  very  unsavoiy  ingredients,  and  that  the  water  with 
which  the  nuptial  couch  was  to  be  sprinkled,  had  replaced  a  fluid 
closely  related  to  the  liquid  employed  by  the  Hottentots  on  such 
occasions. 

"To  procure  the  dissolving  of  bewitched  and  constrained  love,  the 
party  bewitched  must  make  a  jakes  (i.  e.  privy)  of  the  lover's  shoe. 
And  to  enforce  a  man,  how  proper  soever  he  be,  to  love  an  old  hag,  she 
gives  unto  him  to  eate  (among  other  meates)  her  own  dung."  — 
(Scot's  " Discoverie,"  p.  62.) 

This  subject  of  "  JSTouer  I'aiguillette  "  is  referred  to  by  Dulaure.  — 
("  Traite  des  Dif.  Cultes,"  vol.  ii.  p.  288.) 

"  If  a  man  makes  water  upon  a  dog's  urine,  he  will  become  disin- 
clined to  copulation,  they  say." —  (Pliny,  lib.  xxx.  c.  49.) 

"  Beware  thee  that  thou  mie  not  where  the  hound  mied ;  some  men 
say  that  there  a  man's  body  changeth  so  that  he  may  not,  when  he 
Cometh  to  bed  with  his  wife,  bed  along  with  her."  —  (De  Med.  de  Quad, 
of  Sextus  Placitus,  from  "  Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  365.) 


228  SCATALOGIC  EITES  OF  ALL  NATIOKS. 


XXXI. 

'    SIBERIAN   HOSPITALITY. 

A  CURIOUS  manifestation  of  hospitality  has  heen  noticed  among 
-^^  the  Tchuktchi  of  Siberia :  Les  Tschuktschi  offrent  leurs  femmes 
aux  voyageurs ;  mais  ceux-ci,  pour  s'en  rendre  digues,  doivent  se  sou- 
mettre  a  une  epreuve  degotltante.  La  fille  ou  la  femme  qui  doit  passer 
la  nuit  avec  son  nouvel  bote  lui  pr^sente  une  tasse  pleine  de  son  urine ; 
il  faut  qu'il  s'en  rince  la  bouche.  S'il  a  ce  courage,  il  est  regarde 
comme  un  ami  sincere ;  siuon,  il  est  traite  comme  un  ennemi  de  la 
famille.  —  (Dulaure,  "Des  Divinites  Generatrices,"  Paris,  1825,  p. 
400.) 

Among  the  Tchuktchees  of  Siberia,  "  it  is  a  well  known  custom  to 
use  the  urine  of  both  parties  as  a  libation  in  the  ceremony ;  and  like- 
wise between  confederates  and  allies,  to  pledge  each  other  and  swear 
eternal  friendship."  —  ("  In  the  Lena  Delta,"  Melville,  p.  318.) 

The  presentation  of  women  to  distinguished  strangers  is  a  mark  of 
savage  hospitality  noted  all  over  the  world,  but  never  in  any  other 
place  with  the  above  peculiar  accompaniment;  yet  Mungo  Park  as- 
sures his  readers  that,  during  his  travels  in  the  interior  of  Africa,  a 
wedding  occurred  among  the  Moors  while  he  was  asleep.  He  was 
awakened  from  his  doze  by  an  old  woman  bearing  a  wooden  bowl, 
whose  contents  she  discharged  full  in  his  face,  saying  it  was  a  present 
from  the  bride. 

Finding  this  to  be  the  same  sort  of  holy  water  with  which  a  Hotten- 
tot priest  is  said  to  sprinkle  a  newly  married  couple,  he  supposed  it  to 
be  a  mischievous  frolic,  but  was  informed  that  it  was  a  nuptial  bene- 
diction from  the  bride's  own  person,  and  which,  on  such  occasions,  is 
always  received  by  the  young  immarried  Moors  as  a  mark  of  distin- 
guished favor.  —  (Quoted  in  Brand,  *'  Popular  Antiquities,"  London, 
1849,  vol.  ii.  p.  152,  article  "Bride-Ales."  See  also  Mungo  Park's 
"Travels  in  Africa,"  New  York,  1813,  p.  109.) 

In  Hottentot  marriages  "  the  priest,  who  lives  at  the  bride's  kraal, 
enters  the  circle  of  the  men,  and  coming  up  to  the  bridegroom,  pisses 


SIBERIAN  HOSPITALITY.  229 

a  little  upon  him.  The  bridegroom  receiving  the  stream  with  eager- 
ness rubs  it  all  over  his  body,  and  makes  furrows  with  his  long  nails 
that  the  urine  may  penetrate  the  farther.  The  priest  then  goes  to  the 
outer  circle  and  evacuates  a  little  upon  the  bride,  who  rubs  it  in  with  the 
same  eagerness  as  the  bridegroom.  To  him  the  priest  then  returns,  and 
having  streamed  a  little  more,  goes  again  to  the  bride  and  again  scatters 
his  water  upon  her.  Thus  he  proceeds  from  one  to  the  other  until  he 
has  exhausted  his  whole  stock,  uttering  from  time  to  time  to  each  of 
them  the  following  wishes,  till  he  has  pronounced  the  whole  upon  both  : 
*  May  you  live  long  and  happily  together.  May  you  have  a  son  before 
the  end  of  the  year.  May  this  son  live  to  be  a  comfort  to  you  in  your 
old  age.  May  this  son  prove  to  be  a  man  of  courage  and  a  good  hunts- 
man,' "  —  (Peter  Kolbein,  Voy.  to  the  Cape  of  Cood  Hope,  in  Knox, 
"Voyages,"  London,  1777,  vol.  ii.  pp.  399,  400.  This  statement  of 
Kolbein  is  cited  by  Maltebrun,  Univ.  Geog.  vol.  ii.  article  "  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,"  but  he  also  mentions  Thurnberg,  Sparmann  and  Foster 
as  authorities.  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  pp.  89  and  141,  likewise  quotes 
from  Thiirnberg  on  this  subject.) 

"  Have  I  not  drunk  to  yoizr  health,  swallowed  flap-dragons,  eat 
glasses,  drank  wine,  stabbed  arms,  and  done  all  the  offices  of  pro- 
tested gallantry  for  your  sakel"  —  (Marston's  "Dutch  Courte- 
san," London,  1605;  see  also  footnote  on  the  same  point  in  the 
"Honest  Whore,"  Thomas  Dekkar,  1604,  edition  of  London,  1825. 
**  Dutch  flap-dragons,"  "  Healths  in  urine."  See  also  "  A  New  Way 
to  Catch  the  Old  One,"  Thomas  Middleton,  1608,  ed.  of  Eev.  Alex. 
Dyce,  London,  1840;  footnote  to  above:  "Drinking  healths  in  urine 
was  another  and  more  disgusting  feat  of  gallantry."  Again,  for  flap- 
dragons,  see  in  "  Ram  Alley,"  by  Ludovick  Barry,  1611,  ed.  of  Loudon, 
1825.) 

In  the  "Histoire  Secrete  du  Prince  Croq'  Etron,"  M'lle  Laubert, 
Paris,  1790,  Prince  Constipati  is  entertained  by  the  Princess  Clyster- 
ine  ;  elle  lui  donna  de  la  limonade,  de  la  fa9on  d'Urinette"  (p.  17). 

Brand  has  a  very  interesting  chapter,  entitled  "Drinking  Wine  in 
the  Church  at  Marriages,"  in  which  it  appears  that  the  custom  pre- 
vailed very  generally  among  nations  of  the  highest  civilization,  of 
having  the  bride,  groom,  and  invited  guests,  share  in  a  cup  or  chalice, 
filled  with  some  intoxicant;  in  England,  a  country  which  has  never 
raised  the  grape,  this  drink  is  wine  ;  in  Ireland,  it  was  whiskey.  Brand 
traces  it  back  to  a  Gothic  origin,  but  he  himself  calls  attention  to  the 


I 


230  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIO^'S. 

breaking  of  wine-glasses  at  the  marriage  ceremony  among  Hebrews, 
from  which  circumstance  a  still  greater  antiquity  may  be  inferred. 

"  Cobbler's  punch,"  urine  with  a  cinder  in  it.  —  (Grose,  "  Diction- 
ary of  Buckish  Slang,"  London,  1811.) 

"  A  beautiful  lady,  bathing  in  a  cold  bath,  one  of  her  admirers,  out 
of  gallantry,  drank  some  of  the  water."  —  (Idem,  article  "Toast.") 

"  We  were  told  that  the  priest  (of  the  Hottentots)  certainly  gives 
the  nuptial  benediction  by  sprinkling  the  bride  and  groom  with  his 
urine." —  (Lieut.  Cook,  R.  N.,  in  "  Hawkesworth's  Voyages,"  London, 
1773,  vol.  iii.  p.  387.) 

Similar  statements  are  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Hahn  and 
others  of  the  Dutch  missionaries  to  the  natives  of  South  Africa. 

The  malevolence  of  witchcraft  seems  to  have  taken  the  greatest 
pleasure  in  subtle  assaults  upon  those  just  entering  the  married  state. 
Fortunately,  amulets,  talismans,  and  counter-charms  were  within 
reach  of  all  who  needed  them.  The  best  of  all  these  was  thought  to 
be  urination  through  the  wedding-ring.  —  (See  Brand,  "Pop.  Ant.," 
vol.  iii.  p.  305.) 

The  variants  of  this  practice  are  innumerable,  and  are  referred  to 
by  nearly  all  the  old  writers. 

Beckherius  tells  his  readers  that  to  counteract  the  effects  of  witch- 
craft, and  especially  of  "  Nouer  I'Aiguillette  "  ..."  Si  per  nuptialem 
annulnm  sponsius  mingat,  fascina  et  Veneris  impoteutia  solvetur,  qua 
a  maleficiis  ligatus  fuit." —  ("Med.  Microcos."  p.  G6.) 

"  Pisse  through  a  wedding-ring  if  you  would  know  who  is  hurt  in 
his  privities  by  witchci-aft."  —  (Reg.  Scot,  "  Discoverie,"  p.  64.) 

"  Si  quis  aliquo  veneficio  impotens  ad  usum  veneris  factus  fuerit  at 
quam  primum  mingat  per  annulum  conjugalem."  —  (Frommann, 
"Tract,  de  Fascinat."  p.  997.) 

Etmuller  did  not  believe  that  witches  could  "  nouer  I'aiguillette  ;  " 
he  attributed  that  effect  to  excessive  modesty  ;  yet  all  the  remedies 
mentioned  by  him,  by  which  the  testes  of  the  bridegroom  were  to  be 
anointed,  contained  "  Zibethum  "  as  an  ingredient.  —  (See  his  "  Opera 
Omnia,"  vol.  i.  p.  461  b,  and  462  a.) 

For  loss  of  virility,  Paullini  recommends  drinking  the  lu'ine  of  a 
bull,  immediately  after  he  has  covered  a  cow,  and  smear  the  pubis 
with  the  bull's  excrements ;  also  piss  through  the  engagement  ring 
(pp.  152,  153). 

But  when  witches  have  been  the  occasion  of  such  impotence,  the 
victim  should  urinate  through  the  wedding  ring  immediately  after 


SIBERIAN   HOSPITALITY.  231 

discovering  his  misfortune  ;  he  also  advises  urination  upon  a  broom; 
human  ordure  was  also  efficacious.  Or,  take  castor-oil  plant,  put  it 
into  a  pot,  add  some  of  the  patient's  urine,  hermetically  seal,  boil 
slowly,  and  then  bury  in  an  unfrequented  spot.  By  this  method,  the 
witches  w'll  either  be  made  to  piss  blood,  or  have  other  tormenting 
pains  until  they  relieve  the  bewitched  one.  —  (Idem,  pp.  264,  2G5.) 

Etmuller  describes  another  "  sympathetic  "  cure  for  this  infirmity  : 
This  prescribed  that  the  bridegroom  should  catch  a  fish  (the  Latin 
word  is  "lucium,"  meaning  probably  our  pike),  forcibly  open  its 
mouth,  urinate  therein,  and  throw  the  fish  back  in  the  water,  up- 
stream ;  then  try  to  copulate,  taking  care  to  urinate  through  the  wed- 
ding-ring, both  before  and  after.  "  Si  quis  emat  lucium  piscem  sexus 
masculini,  huic  per  vim  aperiatur  os,  et  in  os  ejus  immittatur  urinam, 
maleficiati.  Hie  lucius  ita  vivus  immittatur  in  fluvium,  idque  contra 
ejusdem  cursum  .  .  .  subito  namque  tollitur  maleficium  si  non  sit 
nimis  inveteratum,  etc.  .  .  .  probatum  etiam  fuit  si  sponsus  ante  cop- 
ulationem  et  etiam  post  eam  mittat  suam  urinam  per  anuulum  spon- 
salitium  quem  accepit  a  sponsa."  He  gives  another  cure,  of  much  the 
same  kind,  which,  however,  required  that  the  micturation  through  the 
ring  should  be  done  in  a  cemetery  while  the  patient  was  lying  on  his 
back  on  a  tombstone.  "A  vetula  suppeditato  dum  soil,  in  cementerio 
qnodam  missit  urinam  per  annul nm  cujiisdam  lapidis  sepulchro  incum- 
bentis."  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  i.  p.  462  a,  462  b.) 

This  remedy  is  believed  in  and  practised  by  the  peasantry  in  some 
parts  of  Germany  to  the  present  day.  "A  married  man  who  has 
become  impotent  through  evil  influences  can  obtain  relief  by  forming 
a  ring  with  his  thumb  and  forefinger,  and  urinating  through  it  se- 
cretly."—  ("  Sagen-marchen,  Volkaberglauben,  aus  Schwaben,"  Drs. 
Birlinger  and  Buck,  Freiburg,  1861,  p.  486.) 

Grimm,  in  his  "•  Teutonic  Mythology"  (vol.  iii.)  refers  to  " Nouer 
I'aiguillette,""  but  adds  nothing  to  what  has  been  presented  above. 

There  are  certain  quaint  usages  connected  with  weddings  among  the 
peasantry  of  Russia,  as  well  as  among  the  rustic  population  of  Eng- 
land, which  might  excite  the  curiosity  of  antiquarians.  In  the  first 
case,  there  is  a  "sprinkling"  with  water  once  used  by  the  bride  for 
the  purpose  of  bathing  her  person  ;  in  the  other,  there  is  a  "  sale"  of 
a  liquid  by  the  bride,  this  liquid  being  an  intoxicant. 

Wedding  ceremonies  of  the  peasantry  of  Saraogitia  :  "  The  bride 
was  led  on  the  wedding-day  three  times  round  the  fireplace  of  her 
future  husband ;  it  was  then  customary  to  wash  her  feet,  and  with  the 


232  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

same  water  that  had  .been  used  for  that  purpose  the  bridal  bed,  the 
furniture,  and  all  the  guests  were  sprinkled." — (Maltebrun,  "Univ. 
Geog.,"  vol.  ii.  p.  548,  art.  "Russia.") 

By  a  reference  back  to  page  60  of  this  volume,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  Queen  of  Madagascar  favored  her  subjects  in  the  same  way.  This 
sprinkling  with  the  water  used  as  above  may  be  a  survival  of  a  former 
practice,  in  which  the  aspersion  was  with  the  urine  of  the  bride. 

"  Bride- Ale,  Bride-Bush,  and  Bride-Stake  are  nearly  synonymous 
terms,  and  are  all  derived  from  the  circumstance  of  the  bride's  selling 
ale  on  the  wedding-day,  for  which  she  received,  by  way  of  contribu- 
tion, whatever  handsome  price  the  friends  assembled  on  the  occasion 
chose  to  pay  her  for  it."  (Brand,  "  Pop.  Ant.,"  vol.  ii.  p.  143,  art. 
"  Bride-Ales.")  In  this  article  he  introduces  the  story  from  Mungo 
Park  already  given  in  these  pages,  and  seems  to  have  a  suspicion  that 
the  custom  above  described  could  be  traced  back  to  a  rather  unsavory 
origin. 

The  derivation  of  the  English  word  "bridal"  is  very  obscure;  Fos- 
broke  says  that  the  word  "bride-ale"  comes  from  the  bride's  selling 
ale  on  her  wedding-day,  and  the  friends  contributing  what  they  liked 
in  payment  of  it." — ("Cyclop,  of  Antiq.,"  vol.  ii.  p.  818,  under 
"  Marriage  "  and  "  Bride-Ales.") 

The  Latin  name  for  beer  or  ale  was  "  cerevisia,"  which  would  seem 
to  be  a  derivative  from  the  name  of  the  goddess.  It  may,  in  earlier 
ages,  have  been  a  beverage  dedicated  to  that  goddess,  employed  in  her 
libations,  and  held  sacred  as  the  means  of  producing  the  condition 
of  inebriation,  which  in  all  nations  has  been  looked  upon  as  sacred. 
Eeclus  tells  that  there  are  still  nations  who  regard  their  brewers  as 
priests,  and  there  are  others  who  exalt  their  milkmen  to  that  office  : 
"  Lcs  Chewsoures  du  Caucase  ont  leurs  pretres  brasseurs ;  les  Todas 
des  Neilgherries  leurs  divins  fromagiers." —  ("Les  Primitifs,"  p.  IIG, 
article  "  Les  Inoits  Occidentaux.") 

Hazlitt  mentions  the  case  where  the  Fairies,  having  a  mock  bap- 
tism and  no  water  at  hand,  made  use  of  strong  beer." — ("Fairy 
Tales,"  London,  1875,  p.  385.) 

Beer  would  appear  entitled  to  claim  as  old  an  origin  as  alcohol ;  it 
is  mentioned  in  the  sacred  books  of  the  Buddhists  of  Tibet :  "  La 
Biere  d'hiver  (dguntchang)."  —  ("  Pratimoksha  Sutra,"  translated  bj 
W.  W.  Eockhill,  Paris,  1885,  Societe  Asiatique.) 


PAKTURITION.  233 


xxxn. 

PARTURITION". 

T?OR  the  cui'e  of  sterility,  Pliny  says  that  "authors  of  the  very 
-*~  highest  repute  .  .  .  .recommend  the  application  of  a  pessary 
made  of  the  fresh  excrement  voided  by  an  infant  at  the  moment  of  its 
birth."  The  urine  of  eunuchs  was  considered  to  be  "  highly  beneficial 
as  a  promoter  of  fruitfulness  in  females." —  (Lib.  xxviii.  cap.  18.) 

*'  A  hawk's  dung,  taken  in  honeyed  wine,  would  appear  to  render 
females  fruitful."  —  (Idem,  lib.  xxx.  c.  44.) 

"  Ut  mulier  concipiat,  infantis  masculi  stercus  quod  primum  enatus 
eraittet,  suppositum  locis  mulieris  conceptionem  facit  et  praestat."  — 
(Sextus  Placitus,  "  De  Medicamentis  ex  Animalibus,"  Lyons,  1537, 
pages  not  numbered,  article   "  De  Puello  et  Puella  Virgine.") 

Schurig  recommends  an  application  of  bull-dung  to  the  genitalia  of 
women  to  facilitate  pregnancy.  ("  Chylologia,"  vol.  ii.  p.  602.)  The 
woman  drank  her  own  urine  to  ease  the  pains  of  pregnancy.  (Idem, 
p.  535.)  There  is  a  method  of  inducing  conception  outlined  in  vol.  ii. 
p.  712,  by  the  use  of  a  bath  of  urine  poured  over  rusty  old  iron. 
Mouse-dung  was  applied  as  a  pessary  in  pregnancy.  (Idem,  pp.  728, 
729.)  Hawk-dung  drunk  by  a  woman  before  coitus  insured  concep- 
tion. (Idem,  p.  748.)  Goose  or  fox  dung  rubbed  upon  the  pudenda 
of  a  woman  aided  in  bringing  about  conception.  (Idem,  p.  748.) 
Leopard-dung  was  also  supposed  to  fiicilitate  conception  ;  pastilles  were 
made  of  it,  and  the  sexual  parts  fumigated  therewith ;  or  a  pessary 
was  inserted  and  kept  in  place  for  three  days  and  three  nights : 
"Ea  quamvis  antea  sterilis  fuit,  deinceps  tamen  concipiet."  —  (Idem, 
p.  820.) 

But  Schurig  warns  his  readers  that  care  must  be  exercised  in  the 
use  of  such  remedies.  He  gives  an  instance  of  a  woman  who  applied 
the  dung  of  a  wolf  to  her  private  parts,  and  soon  after  bearing  a 
child,  found  him  possessed  of  a  wolfish  appetite.  —  (Idem,  lib.  i.  cap.  1, 
article  "De  Bulimo  Brutorum,"  p.  24.) 


234  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

"  When  ladies  desire  to  know  whether  or  not  they  are  enceinte, 
PauUiiii  recommends  that  they  urinate  in  an  earthen  vessel  wherein  a 
needle  has  been  thrown.  Let  it  stand  over  night ;  should  the  needle 
become  covered  with  small  red  spots,  the  woman  is  enceinte;  but 
should  it  be  black  or  rusty,  she  is  not.  To  determine  whether  she  is 
to  have  a  son  or  daughter,  dig  two  small  pits  ;  put  barley  in  one,  and 
wheat  in  the  other ;  let  the  enceinte  lady  urinate  into  both ;  then 
cover  up  the  vessels  with  earth ;  if  the  wheat  sprout  first,  it  is  to  be  a 
son  ;  if  the  barley  sprout  before  the  wheat,  it  is  to  be  a  daughter."  — 
(Paullini,  p.  163.) 

Or,  throw  a  pea  into  each  parcel  of  urine ;  then  the  pea  which  ger- 
minates first,  etc.,  etc.  "  Aut  injiciatur  lens  in  unius  cujusque  urina 
et  cujus  efflorescit,  ille  culpa  caret,"  is  the  method  suggested  by  Dan- 
ielus  Beckherius.  —  ("  Med.  Microcos.  aut  Spagyria  Microcosmi,"  pp. 
GO,  61,  quoting  from  still  older  authorities.) 

He  gives  still  another  plan  :  "  If  you  wish  to  determine  whether  a 
woman  is  to  bear  children,  pour  some  of  her  urine  upon  marsh-mal- 
lows ;  if  they  be  found  dry  on  the  third  day,  she  '11  not  conceive.  "  Si 
explorare  volueris,  utrum  mulier  ad  concipiendam  sit  idonea,  tunc 
super  malvam  sylvestram  urinam  ejus  funde ;  si  ille  tertio  die  arida 
fuerit,  omnino  minus  idoneam  illara  habeto." —  (Idem,  p.  61.) 

Paullini  urges  that  the  excrements  of  goats,  hawks,  horses,  geese, 
and  the  urine  of  camels  be  taken  to  remedy  sterility  (p.  161). 

And  the  very  same  remedies  are  given  by  Beckherius  and  still  older 
writers. 

English  women,  in  some  localities,  drank  the  urine  of  their  husbands 
to  assist  them  in  the  hour  of  labor. 

"In  the  collection  entitled  '  Sylon,  or  the  Wood'  (p.  130)  we  read 
that  *  a  few  years  ago,  in  this  same  village,  the  women  in  labor  used  to 
drinke  the  urine  of  their  huslmnds,  who  were  all  the  while  stationed, 
as  I  have  seen  the  cows  in  St.  James's  Park,  straining  themselves  to 
give  as  much  as  they  can.'  "  —  (Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  London, 
1849,  vol.  iii.  article,  "Lady  in  the  Straw.") 

"  Mariti  urina  hausta  partum  difficilem  facilitare  dicitur."  —  (Et- 
muller,  vol.  ii.  p.  265,  Schroderi,  "  Dilucidati  Zoologia.") 

An  instance  of  the  drinking  of  her  own  urine  by  a  pregnant  woman 
is  to  be  read  in  Schurig  (p.  45),  art.  "  De  Pica." 

The  warm  urine  of  the  husband  was  drunk  for  the  same  purpose  : 
"  Scil.  Hartmannus  commendat  ut  difficiliter  paricns  libat  haustum 
urinse  mariti  sui  et  ita  si  hie  fuerit  genuinus  foetus  parientam  illam  ex 


PARTURITION.  235 

parti  solvi  piitat;  ast  si  urinae  aliquid  subest  erit  illud  sali  volatili 
ad  morcm  alionxrn  omnium  volatilium,  attribuendum."  (Etmuller, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  171,  172.)  Here  we  have  the  husband's  urine  employed 
not  only  as  a  medicine,  but  as  a  test  of  the  wife's  fidelity. 

John  Moncrief  directs  that,  to  facilitate  conception,  a  pessary  should 
be  inserted  in  the  vagina,  of  which  hare's  dung  was  to  be  a  component. 
Horse's  dung,  drunk  in  water,  aided  a  woman  in  childbirth.  —  ("  The 
Poor  Man's  Physician,"  Edinburgh,  1716,  p.  149.) 

"  Ut  mulier  post  partum  in  secundis  non  laboret,  de  lotio  homiiiis 
subtiliter  gustet  et  secundse  statim  sequentur." —  (Sextus  Placitus.) 

Dioscorides  prescribed  both  human  ordure  and  the  dung  of  the  vul- 
ture to  bring  about  the  expulsion  of  the  foetus.  —  (Materia  Medica, 
edition  of  Kuhn,  vol.  i.  p.  232  et  seq.) 

Goose-dung,  in  internal  doses,  was  prescribed  by  Pliny  for  the  same 
purpose.  —  (Lib.  30,  c.  4.) 

But  the  dung  of  the  elephant  or  menstrual  blood  prevented  concep- 
tion, according  to  Avicenna  :  "  Impregnationem  prohibent  .  .  .  stercus 
elephantis,"  vol.  i.  p.  390,  bll ;  "Impregnationem  prohibent .  .  .  san- 
guis menstruus,  si  supponatus." —  (Vol.  i.  pp.  330,  a  35,  388,  b  50.) 

For  accidents  to  pregnant  women,  apply  rabbit's  dung  externally  ; 
for  miscarriages,  man's  urine,  internally;  the  excreta  of  lionesses, 
hawks,  and  chickens,  internally ;  of  horses  and  geese,  externally  and  also 
internally  ;  and  of  pigeons  and  cows,  externally.  For  after-birth  pains, 
the  patient's  own  urine,  externally ;  or  the  excrement  of  chickens,  in- 
ternally. —  (Paullini.) 

Schurig  recommended  the  use  of  lion-dung,  internally,  in  cases  of 
difficult  parturition.  —  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  819.) 

Etmuller  says  of  secundines  :  "  In  partu  difficili  nil  est  prsestantius  " 
(p.  270). 

Both  Pliny  and  Hippocrates  recommend  hawk-dung  in  the  treatment 
of  sterility,  and  to  aid  in  the  expulsion  of  the  foetus  in  childbirth  ;  it 
was  to  be  drunk  in  wine ;  their  prescription  is  copied  by  Etmuller : 
"  Hippocrates  et  Plinius  ad  sterilitatem  emendandam  propiuant."  — 
(vol.  ii.  p.  285.) 

For  the  expulsion  of  the  dead  foetus,  Pliny  recommended  a  fumiga- 
tion of  horse-dung.  — (Lib.  xxviii.  c.  77.) 

And  Sextus  Placitus  says  :  "  Similiter,  mortuum  etiam  partum  ejicit. 
Idem  facit  ut  mulier  facile  pariat  si  totum  corpus  sufiFumigaveris  claudit 
et  ventrem."  —  (Cap.  "  De  Equo.") 

Etmuller  advises  the  use  of  these  fumigations  to  aid  in  the  expul- 


236  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

sion  of  the  foetus  and  after-birth ;  a  potion  of  the  dung  should  also  be 
administered  in  all  such  cases,  being,  in  his  opinion  fully  equal  to  the 
dung  of  dogs  or  swallows.  —  (Vol.  ii.  p.  263.) 

A  parturient  woman  in  New  Hampshire,  drank  the  urine  of  her  hus- 
band as  a  diuretic,  forty  or  fifty  years  ago. —  (Mi*s.  Fanny  D.  Bergen, 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts.) 

Flemming  is  another  who  recommends  a  draught  of  the  husband's 
urine  to  aid  in  delivery  :  "  Poito,  in  partu  difficili,  uriuara  mariti  cali- 
dam  calido  haustam  esse  "  (p.  23). 

"  A  urine  tub  was  held  above  the  head  of  a  woman  in  labor  to  ward 
off  all  manner  of  evil  influences.  —  (Henry  Rink,  "  Tales  and  Tradi- 
tions of  the  Eskimo,"  Edinburgh,  1875,  p.  55.) 

''Gomez"  (which  is  the  "nirang"  or  urine  of  the  ox)  was  prescribed 
to  be  drunk  as  a  purifying  libation  by  a  woman  who  had  miscarried. 
(See  Fargard  V.  Avendidad,  Zendavesta  (Damesteter's  translation),  Max 
MiiUer's  edition.  "Sacred  Books  of  the  East,"  Oxford,  1880,  p.  62.) 
"She  shall  drink  gomez  mixed  with  ashes,  three  cups  of  it,  or  six  or 
nine,  to  wash  over  the  grave  within  her  womb.  .  .  .  When  three 
nights  have  passed,  she  shall  wash  her  body,  she  shall  wash  her 
clothes,  with  gomez  and  with  water  by  the  nine  holes,  and  thus  shall 
she  be  clean." —  (Idem,  pp.  63,  90.) 

"  Avec  une  tendre  solicitude,  les  bonnes  amies  versent  sur  la  tete  de 
la  femme  en  travail  le  contenu  d'un  pot  de  chambre  pour  fortifier,  disent- 
elles."  —  (" Les  Primitifs,"  Elie  Reclus,  p.  43;  "Les  Inoits  Orien- 
taux.") 

"  The  Commentaires  of  Bernard  the  Provincial,  informs  us  "  says 
Daremberg,  "  that  certain  practices,  not  only  superstitious  bnt  dis- 
gusting, were  common  among  the  doctrines  of  Salerno ;  one,  for 
instance,  was  to  eat  themselves,  and  also  to  oblige  their  husbands  to 
eat,  the  excrements  of  an  ass  fried  in  a  stove  in  order  to  prevent  ster- 
ility."—  ("The  Physicians  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  Minor,  Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  p.  6,  translated  from  Dupuoy's  "  Le  Moyen  Age  Medicale.") 

Mr.  Havelock  Ellis  calls  attention  to  the  use  of  cow's  urine  after 
confinement  by  the  women  of  the  Cheosurs  of  the  Caucasus.  See  also 
under  "Witchcraft,"  "Therapeutics,"  "Divination,"  "Amulets  and 
Talismans,"  "  Cures  by  Transplantation,"  "  Ceremonial  Observances." 

WEANING. 

For  an  example  of  Urinal  Aspersion,  in  connection  with  "Weaning, 
see  on  page  211, 


INITIATION   OF  WAKRIOKS.  —  CONFIRMATION.  237 


XXXIII. 

INITIATION  OF  WARRIORS.  —  CONFIRMATION. 

npHE  attainment  by  young  men  of  the  age  ^of  manhood  is  an  event 
-*-  which  among  all  primitive  peoples  has  been  signalized  by  peculiar 
ceremonies ;  in  a  number  of  instances  ordure  and  urine  have  been  em- 
ployed, as  for  example  :  The  observances  connected  with  this  event  in 
the  lives  of  Australian  warriors  are  kept  a  profound  secret,  but,  among 
the  few  learned  is  the  fact  that  the  neophyte  is  "  plastered  with  goat 
dung."  —  (See  "  Aborigines  of  Australia,"  A.  Brough  Smyth,  London, 
1878,  vol.  i.  p.  59,  footnote.) 

In  some  parts  of  Australia,  Smyth  says  that  the  youfrh  of  fourteen 
or  fifteen  had  to  submit  himself  to  the  rite  of  "Tid-but,"  during  which 
his  head  was  shaved  and  plastered  with  mud  ("  the  head  is  then 
daubed  with  clay ")  '•'  and  his  body  is  daubed  with  clay,  mud,  and 
charcoal-powder  and  filth  of  every  kind."  (Smyth  had  previously 
specified  goat-dung.)  "  He  carries  a  basket  under  his  arm,  containing 
moist  clay,  charcoal,  and  filth.  ...  He  gathers  filth  as  he  goes,  and 
places  il  in  the  basket."  —  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  60.) 

The  young  initiate  throws  this  filth  at  all  the  men  he  meets,  but 
not  at  the  women  or  children,  as  these  have  been  warned  to  keep  out 
of  his  way.  This  is  the  account  given  by  Smyth,  but  Featherman,  from 
whom  Smyth  derived  his  information,  makes  no  such  restriction  iu  his 
text,  simply  stating  that  the  young  man  was  considered  to  be  "  excom- 
municated de  facto."  (See  A.  Featherman,  "  Social  History  of  the 
Races  of  Mankind,"  2d  Division,  London,  1887,  p.  152.)  But,  in  either 
case,  it  is  surely  remarkable  to  stumble  upon  the  counterpart  of  one 
of  the  proceedings  of  the  Feast  of  Fools  in  such  a  remote  corner  of  the 
globe. 

"Among  many  of  the  tribes,  the  ceremony  of  introducing  a  native 
into  manhood,  is  said  to  be  accompanied  with  some  horrible  and  dis- 
gusting practices."  —  ("The  Nat.  Tribes  of  S.  Australia,"  Adelaide, 


238  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

1879,  Introduction,  xxviii,  received  through  the  kindness  of  the 
lioyal  Soc.  of  Sydney,  N.  S.  Wales,  T.  B.  Kyngdon,  Secretary.) 

"In  order  to  infuse  courage  into  boys,  a  warrior,  Kerketegerkai, 
would  take  the  eye  and  tongue  of  a  dead  man  (probably  of  a  slain 
enemy),  and  after  mincing  them  and  mixing  with  his  urine,  would  ad- 
minister the  compound  in  the  following  manner.  He  would  tell  the 
boy  to  shut  his  eyes  and  not  look,  adding  :  *  I  give  you  proper  kaikai ' 
('kaikai'  is  an  introduced  word,  being  the  jargon  English  for  food). 
The  warrior  then  stood  up  behind  the  sitting  youth,  and  putting  the 
latter's  hand  between  his  (the  man's)  legs,  would  feed  him.  After  this 
dose,  'heart  along,  boy  no  fright.'" — (A.  C.  Haddon,  "The  Ethnography 
of  the  Western  Tribes  of  Torres  Straits,"  in  Journal  of  the  Anthrop. 
Institute,  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  xix.  no.  3,  1890,  p.  420.  Re- 
ceived through  the  kindness  of  Professor  H.  C.  Henshaw,  U.  S.  Geol. 
Survey,  Washington,  D.  C.) 

"  Some  other  customs  are  altogether  so  obscene  and  disgusting  I 
must,  even  at  the  risk  of  leaving  my  subject  incomplete,  pass  them  over 
by  only  thus  briefly  referring  to  them."  —  ("Nat.  Tr.  of  S.  Australia," 
p.  280.) 

Monier  Williams  repeats  almost  what  MUller  says  about  the  Parsis. 
A  young  Parsi  undergoes  a  sort  of  confirmation,  during  which  "  he  is 
made  to  drink  a  small  quantity  of  the  urine  of  a  bull."  —  ("  Modem 
India,"  London,  1878,  p.  178.) 

FEARFUL   RITE   OF   THE    HOTTENTOTS. 

A  religious  rite  of  still  more  fearful  import  occurs  among  the  same 
people  at  the  initiation  of  their  young  men  into  the  rank  of  warriors  — 
a  ceremony  which  must  be  deferred  until  the  postulant  has  attained 
his  eighth  or  ninth  year.  It  consists,  principally,  in  depriving  him  of 
the  left  testicle,  after  which  the  medicine  man  voids  his  urine  upon 
him.^ 

"  At  eight  or  nine  years  of  age,  the  young  Hottentot  is,  with  great 
ceremony  deprived  of  his  left  testicle."  (Kolbein,  p.  402.)  He  says 
nothing  about  an  aspersion  with  urine  in  this  instance,  but  on  the 
succeeding  page  he  narrates  that  there  is  first  a  sermon  from  one  of 
the  old  men,  who  afterwards  "  evacuates  a  smoking  stream  of  urine  all 
over  him,  having  before  reserved  his  water  for  that  purpose.  The 
youth  receives  the  stream  with  eagerness  and  joy ;  and  making  furrows 

1  See  iu  Picart,  Coutumes  et  Ceremonies  Religieuses,  vol.  vii.  p.  47. 


INITIATION   OF  WARRIORS.  —  CONFIRMATION.  239 

with  the  long  nails  in  the  fat  upon  his  body,  rubs  in  the  briny  fluid 
with  the  quickest  action.  The  old  man,  having  given  him  the  last 
drop,  utters  aloud  the  following  benediction  :  '  Good  fortune  attend 
thee ;  live  to  old  age.  Increase  and  multiply.  May  thy  beard  grow 
soon.'"  — (Idem,  p.  403.) 

"  The  young  Hottentot,  who  has  won  the  reputation  of  a  hero  by 
killing  a  lion,  tiger,  leopard,  elephant,  etc.,  is  entitled  to  wear  a  bladder 
in  his  hair ;  he  is  formally  congratulated  by  all  his  kraal.  One  of  the 
medicine-men  marches  up  to  the  hero  and  pours  a  plentiful  stream  over 
him  from  head  to  foot,  —  pronouncing  over  him  certain  terms  which  I 
could  never  get  explained.  The  hero,  as  in  other  cases,  rubs  in  the 
smoking  stream  upon  his  face  and  every  other  part  with  the  greatest 
eagerness."  —  (Idem,  p.  404.) 

Eev.  Theophilus  Hahn  cites  Kolbeiu  in  •'Beitrage  fiir  Kunde  der 
Hottentoten,"  in  Jahrbuch  fiir  Erdkunde,  von  Dresden,  1870,  p.  9, 
as  communicated  by  Dr.  Gatchett  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  For  further  references  to  the  Hottentot  ceremony  of 
luitiation,  by  sprinkling  the  young  warrior  with  urine,  consult  Pinker- 
ton's  "Voyages,"  vol.  xvi.  pp.  89  and  141,  where  there  is  a  quotation 
from  Thurnberg's  "  Account  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope."  See  also 
Maltebrun,  "  Univ.  Geog."  vol.  ii.  article  "The  Cape  of  Good  Hope." 

The  Indians  of  California  gave  urine  to  newly-born  children.  "  At 
time  of  childbirth,  many  singular  observances  obtained ;  for  instance, 
the  old  women  washed  the  child  as  soon  as  it  was  born,  and  drank  of 
the  water ;  the  unhappy  infant  was  forced  to  take  a  draught  of  urine 
medicinally." — (Bancroft,  H.  H.  "Native  Races,"  vol.  i.  p.  413.) 

Forlong  states  that  at  the  time  of  investiture  of  the  Indian  boy  with 
the  sacred  thread,  "the  fire  is  kindled  with  the  droppings  of  the 
sacred  cow."  —  ("  Rivers  of  Life,"  London,  1883,  vol.  i.  p.  323.) 

Valuable  information  was  also  received  from  Mr.  Edward  Palmer,  of 
Brisbane,  Queensland,  Australia,  especially  in  regard  to  the  Kalkadoon 
tribe  near  Cloncurry,  who  are  among  those  who  split  the  urethra. 

In  order  to  bring  up  an  Eskimo  child  to  be  an  "  Angerd-lartug-sick," 
—  that  is,  "  a  man  brought  up  in  a  peculiar  manner,  with  a  view  to 
acquiring  a  certain  faculty  by  means  of  which  he  might  be  called  to  life 
again  and  returned  to  land,  in  case  he  should  be  drowned,"  —  "  for 
this  purpose  the  mother  had  to  keep  a  strict  fast  and  the  child  to  be 
accustomed  to  the  smell  of  urine."  —  (Rink,  "  Tales  and  Traditions  of 
the  Eskimo,"  p.  45.) 

Reclus  says  of  the  Inuit  child  selected  to  be  trained  as  an  Angekok  : 


240  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  Sitot  u6e,  la  petite  creature  sera  asperg^e  d'urine  de  maniere  I.  I'im- 
pregner  de  son  odeux-  caracteristique ;  c'est  d^cid^ment  leur  eau  benite. 
Ailleurs,  la  barbe,  la  chevelure,  I'entiere  personue  des  rois  et  sacrifica- 
teurs  sont  oiiites  d'huile  prise  dans  de  saintes  ampoules;  ailleurs, 
elles  sont  beurrees  et  barbouillees  de  bouse  soigneusement  eteudues." 
—  ("  Les  Primitifs,"  p.  84,  "  Les  Inoits  Occidentaux.") 

For  initiation  in  witchcraft,  "  Dans  la  Hesse,  le  postulant  se  place 
Bur  du  fumier  en  prouon9ant  des  formules  magiques,  et  pique  un  era- 
paud  avec  un  baton  blanc  qu'il  jette  ensuite  a  I'eau."  —  ("  La  Fascina- 
tion," J.  Tuchmann,  in  "  Melusine,"  Paris,  July-August,  1890,  p.  93.) 

"  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  the  belief  that  all  these  rites  are  survivals 
or  debased  vestiges  of  the  blood-covenant  practice,  by  which  the  par- 
taking of  each  other's  selves  (by  whatever  is  a  portion  of  one's  self)  is 
a  form  of  covenanting  by  which  two  persons  become  as  one.  Are  yon 
aware  of  the  fact  that  the  habit  of  giving  the  urine  of  a  healthy  child 
to  a  new-bom  babe  has  prevailed  down  to  the  present  day  among  rus- 
tic nurses  in  New  England,  if  not  elsewhere,  in  America?  I  can  bear 
personal  testimony  to  this  fact  from  absolute  knowledge.  It  is  a  note- 
worthy fact  that  the  Hebrew  word  chaneeJc,  which  is  translated  '  trained ' 
or  *  initiated,'  and  which  is  used  in  the  proverb,  *  Train  up  a  child,'  etc., 
has  as  its  root-idea  (as  shown  in  the  corresponding  Arabic  word)  the 
'  opening  of  the  gullet '  in  a  new-born  child,  the  starting  the  child  in 
its  new  life.  Among  some  primitive  peoples  fresh  blood,  as  added  life, 
is  thus  given  to  a  babe;  and  in  other  cases  it  is  urine."  —  (Personal 
letter  from  Eev.  H.  K.  Trumbull,  editor  of  the  "  Sunday-School  Times," 
Philadelphia,  April  19,  1888.) 

"The  priesthood  of  the  false  gods  is  hereditary  in  the  family.  .  .  . 
Others  may  be  introduced  into  the  corps  of  fetich  priests,  but  they 
have  to  pay  dearly  for  the  honor.  .  .  .  Every  morning  before  sunrise 
and  every  evening  at  sunset  the  aspirants  were  heard  singing  in  choir, 
directed  by  an  old  fetich  priestess."  These  ceremonies  of  consecra- 
tion "last  several  days.  .  .  .  The  crinkled  hair  which  is  completely 
shaved  off  of  some,  and  only  from  the  crown  of  the  head  of  others, 
the  aspersion  of  lustral  water,  the  imposition  of  the  new  name."  — 
("  Fetichism,"  Pev.  P.  Baudin,  New  York,  1885,  pp.  74,  75.) 

"  One  observer  of  the  customs  of  the  blacks  has  stated  in  the  journal 
of  the  Anthropological  Society  of  London  that  in  the  Hunter  River 
District  of  New  South  Wales,  the  catechumens  at  some  parts  of  the 
Bora  ceremonies  are  required  to  eat  ordure  ;  but  I  have  made  diligent 
inquiries  in  the  same  locality  and  elsewhere,  but  have  found  nothing 


INITIATION   OF  WARRIORS.  —  CONFIRMATION.  241 

to  corroborate  his  statement.  Similarly,  in  one  district  in  Queensland, 
it  is  said  that  the  blacks,  whether  at  the  Bora  or  not  1  cannot  say, 
make  cup-like  holes  in  the  clay  soil,  collect  their  urine  in  them,  and 
drink  it  afterwards.  This  latter  statement  may  be  true,  but  I  have 
never  been  able  to  substantiate  it  by  information  from  those  who 
know.  Various  considerations,  however,  lead  me  to  think  it  possible 
that  our  blacks,  in  some  places  at  least  (for  their  observances  are  not 
everywhere  the  same),  may  use  ordure  and  urine  in  that  way,  thinking 
that  the  evil  spirit  will  be  propitiated  by  their  eating  in  his  honor  that 
which  he  himself  delights  to  eat ;  just  as  in  Northwestern  India  a  de- 
votee may  be  seen  going  about  w^ith  his  body  plastered  all  over  with 
human  dung  in  honor  of  his  god.  And  our  blacks  have  good  reason  to 
try  to  propitiate  this  unclean  spirit  (Gunung-dhukhya)  in  every  pos- 
sible way,  for  they  believe  that  he  can  enter  their  bodies,  and  effecting 
a  lodgment  in  their  abdomen,  feed  there  on  the  foulest  of  the  contents, 
and  thus  cause  cramps,  fits,  madness,  and  other  serious  disorders. 
The  uou- Aryan  population  of  India  have  similar  beliefs  ;  for  among  the 
devil-worshippers  of  Western  India  there  are  certain  malignant  spirits 
called  Bhutas  ;  and  these  in  their  habits  are  similar  to  Gunungdhuduk- 
hya.  They  too  cause  mischief  by  taking  possession  of  the  body,  and 
they  delight  to  devour  human  beings ;  they  too  live  in  desert  places, 
especially  among  tall  trees.  They  take  the  forms  of  men  and  animals, 
and  prowl  about  in  burial-grounds,  and  eat  the  carcasses."  —  (Personal 
letter  from  John  Frazer,  LL.D.,  dated  Sydney,  Xew  South  Wales,  De- 
cember 24,  1889.) 

This  correspondent  has  struck  the  keynote  of  the  curious  behavior 
of  the  prophet  Ezekiel  and  others.  Believing,  as  was  believed  in  their 
day,  that  deities  ate  excrement,  why  should  not  they,  the  representa- 
tives of  the  gods,  eat  it  too  1  And  if  a  god  enter  into  a  man's  body  to 
eat  excrement,  why  should  not  the  victim  feed  him  on  that  which  is  so 
acceptable,  and  by  gorging  him  free  himself  from  pain  1 

See,  under  "War  Customs,"  the  use  of  the  drink  ivysoccan  by  the 
Indians  of  Virginia,  in  their  ceremonies  of  initiation. 

See,  under  "  Ordeals  and  Punishments,"  page  254,  iu  regard  to  the 
belief  of  the  Australians. 


"WAR-CUSTOMS.  —  ARMS   AND    ARMOR. 

It  is  remarkable  that  we  should  be  able  to  adduce  any  example  of 
the  employment  of  excrementitious  matter  in  war  customs ;  not  that 

16 


242  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

we  should  not  suspect  their  existence,  but  because  on  occasions  of  such 
importance  the  medicine-meu,  who  arrogate  to  themselves  so  much 
consequence  in  all  military  affairs,  would  naturally  be  more  careful 
to  conceal  their  performances  from  profane  eyes.  There  is  very  little 
reason  to  doubt  that  a  fuller  examination  would  be  rewarded  with  new 
facts  of  additional  interest  and  value. 

When  the  Dutch  were  besieging  Batavia,  in  the  Island  of  Java,  in 
1623,  the  natives  daubed  themselves  with  human  ordure,  in  all  likeli- 
hood for  some  vague  religious  purpose,  —  "a  1629,  in  obsidione 
Batavos  obsessos,  in  defectu  aliorum  ad  dcfensionem  necessariorum 
requisitorum  hostes  suos  Indos  stercore  humano  ex  cloacis  collecto, 
ollisque  in  ipsorum  nuda  corpora  conjecto,  fugasse." — ("  Chylologia," 
p.  795.) 

"  Les  Malais  se  servent  de  I'urine  pour  tremper  leurs  fameux  criss. 
lis  enfoncent  ces  poignards  dans  la  terre,  et  pendant  un  certain  temps, 
ils  viennent  uriuer  de  maniere  que  cette  terre  soit  toujours  imbibee 
d'urine."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Dr.  Bernard,  Cannes,  France,  dated 
July  7,  1888.) 

Against  what  was  known  in  the  Middle  Ages  as  "  magical  impene- 
trability," human  ordure  was  in  high  repute.  The  sword  or  "  machete  " 
of  the  person  exposed  to  attack  from  such  an  enemy  should  be  rubbed 
in  pig-dung.  But  let  Schurig  tell  his  own  story  :  "  Scilicet,  priusquam 
cum  adversario  hujus  rei  suspecto  congrediaris,  cuspis  machserae  vel 
gladii,  stercori  suillo  infigatur ;  vel  si  eminus  agendum,  globuli  bom- 
berdis  infarciendi  per  sphincterem  ani  ducantur ;  quod  certissimum 
dicitur  antidotum  contra  banc  non  minus  quam  Diaboli  Incantationes." 
—  ("  Chylologia,"p.  791,  par.  64.) 

Frommann  states  that  arms  may  be  bewitched  so  that  they  can  do 
harm  ;  but  he  makes  no  mention  of  human  or  animal  excreta  in  such 
connection.  —  ("Tract,  de  Fascinat.,"  p.  654.) 

"  Dum  gladio  quo  vulnus  fuit  inflictum  sive  cruento  sive  non  cruento 
applicatur  unguentum  quod  vocant  magneticum  armarium  quo  curatur 
vulnus."  (Etmuller,  vol.  i.  p.  68.)  This  magnetic  ointment  was 
made  of  human  ordure  and  human  urine. 

See  also  page  298  of  this  volume. 

"  The  Scythians  prefer  mares  for  the  purposes  of  war,  because  they 
can  pass  their  urine  without  stopping  in  their  career."  —  (Pliny,  lib. 
viii.  cap.  66.) 

The  "  black  drink  "  of  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles  was  an  emetic  and 
cathartic  of  somewhat  violent  nature.     It  was  used  by  the  warriors  of 


INITIATION   OF  WARRIORS.  —  CONFIRMATION.  243 

those  tribes  when  about  to  start  out  on  the  war-path  or  engage  in  any 
important  deliberations.  —  (See  Cornwallis  Clay's  dissertation  upon 
the  Seminoles  of  Florida,  in  "  Annual  Report  of  Bureau  of  Ethnology," 
Washington,  D.  C,  1888.) 

The  "  black  drink  "  of  the  Creeks  was  made  from  the  Iris  Versi- 
color (Natural  order,  Iridacsea),  '*  an  active  emeto-cathartic,  abundant 
in  swampy  grounds  throughout  the  Southern  States." —  (See  Brinton, 
"Myths  of  the  New  World,"  New  York,  1868,  p.  274.) 

Beverly  mentions  "a  mad  potion,"  "the  Wysoccan,"  used  by  the 
Indians  of  Virginia  during  "an  initiatory  ceremony  called  Huskansaw, 
which  took  place  every  sixteen  or  twenty  years,"  which  he  calls  "  the 
water  of  Lethe,"  and  by  the  use  of  which  they  "  perfectly  lose  the 
remembrance  of  all  former  things,  even  of  their  parents,  their  treasure, 
and  their  language."  —  ("Golden  Bough,"  vol.  ii.  p.  349,  quoting  Bev- 
erly's "History  of  Virginia,"  London,  1722,  p.  177.) 

See,  under  "  Insults,"  p.  256,  for  the  war  customs  of  the  Samoans. 
See  also  "  Catamenia ; "  "  Witchcraft." 


244  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 


XXXIV. 

HUNTING  AXD   FISHING. 

^T^HE  African  hunter  in  pursuit  of  game,  such  as  elephants,  anoints 
-*-  himself  "all  over  with  their  dung." —  (Father  Merolla,  in  Pink- 
erton,  vol.  xvi.  p.  251,  "Voyage  to  Congo.")  This,  he  says,  is  merely 
to  deceive  the  animal  with  the  smell. 

Pliny  relates  that  in  Heraklea  the  countrj'-people  poisoned  panthers 
with  aconite.  But  the  panthers  had  sense  enough  to  know  that  hu- 
man excrement  was  an  antidote.  (Lib.  xxviii.  c.  2.)  Again  in  lib. 
viii.  c.  41  he  tells  of  the  aconite-poisoned  panther  curing  itself  by 
eating  human  excrement.  Knowing  this  fact,  the  peasants  suspend 
human  excrement  in  a  pot  so  high  in  the  air  that  the  panther  exhausts 
itself  in  jumping  to  reach  it,  and  dies  all  the  sooner. 

Schurig  ("  Chylologia,"  p,  774)  has  the  above  tale,  but  has  taken  it 
from  Claudius  ^Emilianus,  as  well  as  Pliny. 

The  reindeer  Tchuktchi  feign  to  be  passing  urine  in  order  to  catch 
their  animals  which  they  want  to  use  with  their  sleds.  The  reindeer, 
horses,  and  cattle  of  the  Siberian  tribes  are  very  fond  of  urine,  prob- 
ably on  account  of  the  salt  it  contains,  and  when  the}'  see  a  man 
walking  out  from  the  hut,  as  if  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  his  bladder, 
they  follow  him  up,  and  so  closely  that  he  finds  the  operation  anything 
but  pleasant. 

"  The  Esquimaux  of  King  William's  Land  and  the  adjacent  peninsula 
often  catch  the  wild  reindeer  by  digging  a  pit  in  the  deep  snow,  and 
covering  it  with  thin  blocks  of  snow,  that  would  break  with  the  weight 
of  an  animal.  They  then  make  a  line  of  urine  from  several  directions, 
leading  to  the  centre  of  the  cover  of  the  pitfall,  where  an  accumulation 
of  snow,  saturated  with  the  urine  of  the  dog,  is  deposited  as  bait. 
One  or  more  animals  are  thereby  led  to  their  destruction." — (Per- 
sonal letter  from  the  Arctic  explorer,  W.  H.  Gilder,  dated  New  York, 
October  15,  1889.) 

"The  dogs  of  the  Esquimaux  are  equally  fond  of  excrement,  espe- 
cially in  cold  weather,  and  when  a  resident  of  the  Arctic  desires  to 


HUNTING  AND   FISHING.  245 

relieve  himself,  he  finds  it  necessary  to  take  a  whip  or  a  stick  to 
defend  himself  against  the  energy  of  the  hungry  dogs.  Often,  wheu 
a  man  wants  to  urge  his  dog-team  to  greater  exertion,  he  sends  his 
wife  or  one  of  the  boys  to  run  ahead,  and  when  at  a  distance,  to  stoop 
down  and  make  believe  he  is  relieving  himself  The  dogs  are  thus 
spurred  to  furious  exertion,  and  the  boy  runs  on  again,  to  repeat  the 
delusion.  This  never  fails  of  the  desired  effect,  no  matter  how  often 
repeated."  —  (Idem.) 

*'  I  only  know  one  superstitious  use  of  excrement,  —  that  wherein 
the  hooks  were  placed  round  some  before  the  fishing  incantations 
began."  ("The  Maoris  of  New  Zealand,"  E.  Tregear,  in  "Journal  of 
the  Anthrop.  Institute,"  London,  1889.)  This  bears  a  very  close 
resemblance  to  certain  of  the  uses  of  cow-dung  in  India. 

The  people  of  Angola,  west  coast  of  Africa,  when  about  to  set  out 
on  a  hunt,  are  careful  to  collect  the  dung  of  the  elephant,  antelope, 
and  other  kinds  of  wild  animals,  and  hand  them  to  the  medicine- 
man, who  makes  a  magical  compound  out  of  them,  and  places  it  in  a 
horn.  It  then  serves  as  an  amulet,  and  will  ensure  success  in  the 
hunt.  —  ("  Muhongo,"  an  African  boy  from  Angola ;  interpretation 
made  by  Rev.  Mv.  Chatelain.) 


246  SCATALOGIC   RITES  OF   ALL   NATIONS. 


XXXV. 

DIVINATION.  —  OMENS.  —  DREAMS. 

A  MONO  the  ancients  there  was  a  method  of  divination  by  excre- 
-^^*"    mentitious  materials.  — (See  "  Scatomancie,"  in  Bib.  Scat.  p.  28.) 

"Gaule,  in  his  *  Mag-Astromancers  Posed  and  Puzzled'  (p.  165), 
enumerates  as  follows  the  several  species  of  divination."  (Here  fol- 
lows a  list  of  fifty- three  kinds.)  One  of  the  kinds  enumerated  is 
"  Spatalomnacy,  by  skin,  bones,  excrement."  —  (Brand,  ''Pop.  Ant.," 
pp.  329,  330.) 

In  the  "  Rhudhiradhyaya,  or  Sanguinary  Chapter,"  translated  from 
the  Calica  Puran,  in  the  4th  vol.  "Asiatic  Researches,"  4th  ed., 
London,  1807,  the  following  is  stated  in  regard  to  human  victims  : 
"  If,  at  the  time  of  presenting  the  blood,  the  victim  discharges  faeces 
or  urine,  or  turns  about,  it  indicates  certain  death  to  the  sacrificer." 

The  Peruvians  had  one  class  of  wizards  (i.  e.,  medicine-men)  who 
"told  fortunes  by  maize  and  the  dung  of  sheep." — ("Fables  and 
Rites  of  the  Yncas,"  Padre  Cristoval  de  Molina,  translated  by  Clement 
C.  Markham,  Hakluyt  Society  Transactions,  London,  1873,  vol.  xlviii., 
p.  14.     Molina  resided  in  Cuzco,  as  a  missionary,  from  1570  to  1584.) 

Les  Hachus  (a  division  of  the  Peruvian  priesthood)  cousultaient 
I'avenir  au  moyen  de  grains  de  ma'is  ou  des  excrements  des  animaux. — 
(Balboa,  "  Histoire  de  Perou,"  p.  29,  in  Ternaux,  vol.  xv.) 

See,  also,  D.  G.  Brinton's  "  Myths  of  the  New  World,"  New  York, 
1868,  pp.  278,  279. 

Ducange,  enumerating  the  pagan  superstitions  which  still  survived 
in  Europe  in  a.  d.  743,  mentions  divination  or  augury  by  the  dung  of 
horses,  cattle,  or  birds  :  "  De  auguriis  vel  avium,  vel  equorum,  vel 
boum  stercoracibus."  —  (Ducange,  Glossary,  article  "  Stercoraces.") 

"  What  wise  man  would  think  that  God  would  commit  his  counsel 
to  a  dog,  an  owle,  a  swine,  or  a  toade  ;  or  that  he  would  hide  his 
secret  purposes  in  the  dung  or  bowels  of  beastes '?  "  Reg.  Scot  ("  Dis- 
coverie,"  p.   150),  speaking   of   the  omens    consulted    by  Spaniards, 


DIVINATION.  —  OMENS.  —  DREAMS.  247 

English,  and  others,  says  :  "  Among  the  rustics  of  France,  to  dream  of 
ordure  was  regarded  as  a  sign  of  good  luck ;  in  like  manner,  to  have 
a  ball,  or  anything  that  one  carried  in  the  hand,  fall  in  ordure,  was 
also  a  sign  of  good  fortune." 

"  To  dream  of  ordure  means  that  somebody  is  going  to  try  to  be- 
witch you." — ("Muhongo,"  a  boy  from  Angola,  Eastern  Africa,  in 
conversation  with  Captain  Bourke  ;  translation  by  Rev.  Mr.  Chatelain.) 

This  belief  in  the  good  or  bad  prognostications  to  be  derived  from 
dreams  about  ordure,  was  very  widely  disseminated.  "  Luck,  or  Good 
Luck.  To  tread  in  Sir  Reverence ;  to  be  bewrayed  ;  an  allusion  to 
the  proverb,  '  Sh-tt-n  luck  is  good  luck,*  " —  ("  Grose,  Diet,  of  Buckish 
Slang,"  London,  1811.) 

"  Inasmuch  as  the  sun  of  morning,  or  spring,  comes  out  of  the  dark- 
blue  bird  of  night,  we  can  understand  the  popular  Italian  and  German 
superstition,  that  when  the  excrement  of  a  bird  falls  upon  a  man  it  is 
an  omen  of  good  luck.  The  excrement  of  the  mythical  bird  of  night, 
or  winter,  is  the  sun." — ("Zool.  Mythol.,"  Angelo  de  Gubematis, 
vol.  ii.  p.  176,  London,  1872.) 

"  When  a  Hindu  child's  horoscope  portends  misfortune  or  crime,  he 
is  born  again  from  a  cow,  thus :  being  di*essed  in  scarlet,  and  tied  on  a 
new  sieve,  he  is  passed  between  the  hind  legs  of  a  cow,  forward 
through  the  fore  legs  to  the  mouth,  and  again  in  the  reverse  direction, 
to  simulate  birth;  the  ordinary  birth  ceremonies  (aspersion,  etc.)  are 
then  gone  through,  and  the  father  smells  his  son  as  a  cow  smells  her 
calf."—  (Frazer,  "Totemism,"  Edinbiirgh,  1887,  p.  33.) 

To  put  one's  foot  in  dung  is  supposed  by  the  French  peasantry  to 
imply  the  acquirement  of  wealth.  —  (Mr.  W.  W.  Rockhill.) 

Among  the  Kamtchatkans,  if  a  child  has  been  born  in  stormy 
weather,  they  believe  that  to  be  a  bad  omen,  and  that  the  child  will 
cause  storm  and  rain  wherever  it  goes.  As  soon  as  it  is  grown  and 
can  speak,  they  purify  it,  and  appease  heaven  by  the  following  method  : 
During  a  most  violent  storm  of  wind  and  rain,  the  child  is  compelled 
to  walk  naked,  holding  a  cup  or  shell  of  Mytues  high  above  its  head, 
around  the  ostrag  and  all  balagans  and  dog  huts,  and  to  say  the  fol- 
lowing prayer  to  Billukai  and  his  Kamuli :  "  Gsaulga,  set  yourselves 
down  and  stop  urinating  or  storming ;  this  shell  it  used  to  salty  but 
not  to  sweet  water ;  you  make  me  very  wet,  and  I  almost  freeze  to 
death ;  besides,  I  have  no  clothing ;  see  how  I  tremble."  —  (Steller, 
translated  by  Bunnemeyer.) 

Divination  by  urine  seems  to  have  been  superseded  by  holy  water 


248  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

ill  a  "  chrystall."  Scot,  speaking  of  the  latter  mode,  says :  "  They 
take  a  glass  vial,  full  of  holy  water,  ...  on  the  mouth  of  the  vial  or 
urinall,"  etc.  —  ('•  Di^coverie,"  p.  188.) 

There  is  among  children  in  the  United  States  and  England,  and  pos- 
sibly on  the  continent  of  Europe  as  well,  a  superstition  to  the  effect 
that  the  one  who  plucks  the  dandelion  will  become  addicted  to  the 
habit  of  urinating  in  bed  during  sleep.  The  author  has  been  unable 
to  trace  the  origin  of  the  curious  notion  or  to  obtain  any  explanation 
of  it. 

"  Leontodon.  Dandelion.  Children  that  eat  it  in  the  evening  ex- 
perience its  diuretic  effects  in  the  night,  which  is  the  reason  that  other 
European  nations  as  well  as  the  British  vulgarly  call  it  piss-a-bed."  — 
(Encyclopaedia,  Philadelphia,  Penn.,  1797,  article  "Leontodon.") 

"  The  following  corapendidus  new  way  of  magical  divination,  which 
we  find  so  humorously  described  in  Butler's  *  Hudibras '  as  follows,  is 
affirmed  by  M.  Le  Blanc,  in  his  *  Travels,'  to  be   used  in  the  East 

Indies :  — 

"  '  Your  modern  Indian  magician 

Makes  but  a  hole  in  th'  earth  to  pisse  in. 
And  straight  resolves  all  questions  by  it, 
And  seldom  fails  to  be  in  th'  right.'  " 

(Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  331,  article  "Divination.") 

Cicero  makes  no  mention  of  a  method  of  divination  by  excrement, 
although,  as  shown  by  the  references  from  the  "  Bib.  Scat."  and  from 
Ducange,  such  methods  must  have  been  in  vogue. 

The  Kamtchatkans  believe  that  "  if  they  ease  nature  during 
sleep,  it  signifies  guests  of  their  nation."  —  (Steller,  translated  by 
Bunnemeyer.) 

Montfaucon  says  that  the  Roman  Haruspices  "  observed  in  the 
beasts  that  were  sacrificed  not  only  the  entrails  in  general,  but  also 
the  gall  and  bladder  in  particular." — ("I'Antiquite  expliquce,"  lib.  i. 
part  1,  cap.  6.) 

See  extract  from  Gilder's  "  Schwatka's  Search,"  imder  "  Mortuary 
Ceremonies,"  p.  262.  See  "Witchcraft,"  "Amulets  and  Talismans," 
"  Urinoscopy,"  "  Virginity,"  "  Sterility,"  "  Courtship  and  Marriage," 
"  Childbirth." 


ORDEALS   AND  PUNISHMENTS.  249 


XXXVI. 

ORDEALS  AND   PUNISHMENTS,  TERRESTRIAL  AND 
SUPERNAL. 

TN  beginning  this  chapter  it  is  fair  to  say  that  oaths  will  herein  be 
-^  regarded  as  a  modified  form  of  the  ancient  ordeal,  in  which  the 
affiant  invokes  upon  himself,  if  proved  to  have  sworn  falsely,  the  tor- 
tures of  the  ordeal,  mundane  or  celestial,  which  in  an  older  form  of 
civilization  he  would  have  been  obliged  to  undergo  as  a  preliminary 
trial. 

The  author  learned  while  campaigning  against  the  Sioux  and  Chey- 
ennes,  in  1876-1877,  that  the  Sioux  and  Assinaboines  had  a  form  of 
oath  sworn  to  while  the  affiant  held  in  each  hand  a  piece  of  buffalo 
chip. 

Among  the  Hindus,  "  sometimes  the  trial  was  confined  to  swallowing 
the  water  in  which  the  priest  had  bathed  the  image  of  one  of  the 
divinities.  .  .  .  The  negroes  of  Issyny  dare  not  drink  the  water  into 
which  the  fetiches  have  been  dipped  when  they  affirm  what  is  not  the 
truth."  —  ("  Phil,  of  Magic,"  Eusebe  Salverte,  New  York,  1862,  vol.  ii. 
p.  123.) 

They  formerly  may  have  drunk  the  urine  of  the  god  or  priest. 

In  "the  'Domesday  Survey,'  in  the  account  of  the  city  of  Chester, 
vol.  i.  p.  262,  we  read  :  *  Vir  sive  mulier  falsam  mensuram  in  civitate 
faciens  deprehensus,  IlII  solid,  emendab.  Similiter  malam  cervisiam 
faciens,  aut  in  Cathedra  ponebatur  stercoris,  aut  IIII  solid,  de  prepotis.'" 
—  (Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  103,  article  "  Cucking 
Stool." 

"  The  ducking  stool  was  a  legal  punishment.  Roguish  brewers  and 
bakers  were  also  liable  to  it,  and  they  were  to  be  ducked  in  stercore 
in  the  town  ditch."  —  (Southey,  "Commonplace  Book,"  1st  series, 
p.  401,  London,  1849.) 

In  Loango,  Africa,  "  When  a  man  is  suspected  of  an  offence  he  is 
carried  before  the  king,"  and  "  is  compelled  to  drink  an  infusion  of  a 
kind  of  root  called  *  imbando.'  .  .  .  The  virtue  of  this  root  is  that,  if 


250  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

they  put  too  much  into  the  water,  the  person  that  drinketh  it  cannot 
void  urine.  .  .  .  The  ordeal  consists  in  drinking  and  then  in  urinatiu"- 
as  a  proof  of  innoceuce."  —  (See  "  Adv.  of  Andrew  Battel!,"  in  Pinker- 
ton's  "  Voyages,"  vol.  xvi.  p.  334.) 

In  Sierra  Leone  the  natives  have  a  curious  custom  to  which  they 
subject  all  of  their  tribe  suspected  of  poisoning.  They  make  the  culprit 
drink  a  certain  "  red  water ;  after  which  for  twenty-four  hours  he  is 
not  allowed  to  ease  nature  by  any  evacuation  ;  and  should  he  not  be 
able  to  restrain  them,  it  would  be  considered  as  strong  a  proof  of  his 
guilt  as  if  he  had  fallen  a  victim  to  the  first  draught."  —  (Lieutenant 
John  Matthews,  R.  N.,  "  Voyage  to  Sierra  Leone,"  1785,  London,  1788, 
p.  126.) 

In  the  Hindu  mythology,  "  slanderers  and  calumniators,  stretched 
upon  beds  of  red-hot  iron,  shall  be  obliged  to  eat  excrements."  — 
(Southey,  "  Commonplace  Book,"  1st  series,  London,  1849,  p.  249. 
He  also  refers  to  2  Kings  xviii.  27,  and  to  Isaiah  xxxvi.  12.) 

"  D'apres  le  systeme  religieuse  de  Brahme,  la  punition  des  calomnia- 
teurs  dans  I'enfer,  consiste  k  etre  nourris  d'excrements."  —  (Majer. 
Diet.  ^lythol.  en  allemagne,  t.  2,  p.  46  ;  Bib.  Scat.,  p.  12.) 

Herodotus  relates  that  Pheron,  the  son  of  Sesostris,  conqueror  of 
Egypt,  became  blind,  and  remained  so  for  ten  years. 

"  But  in  the  eleventh  year  an  oracle  reached  him  from  the  city  of 
Buto,  importing  that  the  time  of  his  punishment  was  expired,  and  he 
should  recover  his  sight  by  washing  his  eyes  with  the  urine  of  a  woman 
who  had  intercourse  with  her  own  husband  only,  and  had  known  no 
other  man."  Herodotus  goes  on  to  relate  that  Pheron  tried  the  urine 
of  his  own  wife  and  that  of  many  other  women  ineffectually  ;  finally  he 
was  cured  by  the  ui'ine  of  a  woman  whom  he  took  to  wife  ;  all  the 
others  he  burnt  to  death.  —  ("Euterpe,"  part  ii.  cap.  3.) 

In  the  "  Histoire  Secrete  du  Prince  Croq'  Etron,"  par  IM'lle  Lau- 
bert,  Paris,  1790,  King  Petaud  orders  Prince  Gadourd  to  be  buried 
alive  in  ordure,  —  a  punishment  which  would  have  suggested  the  au- 
thor's acquaintance  with  Brahminical  literature  even  had  she  not  con- 
fessed it  in  these  terms  :  "  Genre  de  supplice  qui  n'dtait  pas  nouveau 
puisque  d'apres  le  systeme  religieux  de  Brahme,  la  punition  des  calom- 
niateurs  dans  I'enfer,  consiste  k  etre  nourri  d'excrements." 

The  Africans  have  an  oi'deal,  —  ''a  superstitious  ordeal,  by  drinking 
the  poisonous  Muave,"  which  induces  vomiting  only,  according  to 
Livingston  ("  Zambesi,"  London,  1865,  p.  120).  This  mayor  may  not 
be  the  "red  drink  "  of  Lieutenant  Matthews  cited  above. 


ORDEAXS   AND   PUNISHMENTS.  251 

Under  the  head  of  "  Latrines,"  allusion  has  been  made  to  the  pro- 
hibition, in  the  laws  of  the  Thibetan  Buddhists,  against  throwing  ordure 
npon  growing  plants,  etc.  There  is  another  case  mentioned  by  Kock- 
hill,  which  may  as  well  be  inserted  here :  "  Si  une  bhikshuni  jette  des 
excrements  de  I'autre  cot^  d'un  niur  sans  y  avoir  regarde,  c'est  un  pa- 
cittiya."  —  ("  Pratimoksha  Sutra,"  translated  by  W.  W.  Kockhill,  Soc. 
Asiatique,  Paris,  1885.) 

In  the  words  just  quoted  we  find  the  definition  of  the  offence  as  a 
"  pacittiya,"  or  sin.  The  punishment  for  each  sin  or  class  of  sins  was 
carefully  regulated  and  well  understood  in  Thibetan  nunneries. 

"Cock-stool."  "  A  seat  of  ignominy  .  .  .  in  Avhich  scolding  or  im- 
moral women  used  to  be  placed  formerly  as  a  punishment ;  .  .  .  same 
as  '  sedes  Stercoraria.'  "  —  ("  Folk-Etymology,"  Rev.  A.  Smythe-Palmer, 
London,  1882.     See  also  Chambers's  "  Book  of  Days,"  vol.  i.  p.  211.) 

The  Chinese  have  a  very  curious  and  very  horrible  mode  of  pun- 
ishment ;  criminals  of  certain  classes  are  enclosed  in  barrels  or  boxes 
filled  with  building  lime,  and  exposed  in  a  public  street  to  the  rays 
of  the  noon-day  sun ;  food  in  plenty  is  within  reach  of  the  unfor- 
tunate wretches,  but  it  is  salt  fish,  or  other  salt  provision,  with  all  the 
water  needed  to  satisfy  the  thirst  this  food  is  certain  to  excite,  but 
in  the  very  alleviation  of  which  the  poor  criminals  are  only  adding 
to  the  torments  to  overtake  them  when  by  a  more  copious  discharge 
from  the  kidneys  the  lime  shall  "quicken"  and  burn  them  to  death. 

In  the  famous  bull  of  Ernulphus,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  cited  in  "  Tris- 
tram Shandy,"  the  delinquent  was  to  be  cursed,  "  mingendo,  cacando." 
—  (See  "Tristram  Shandy,"  Lawrence  Stenie,  ed.  of  Loudon,  1873, 
vol.  i.  p.  188.) 

"  Fasting  on  bread  and  drinking  water  defiled  by  the  excrement  of 
a  fowl"  are  among  the  disciplinary  punishments  cited  in  Fosbroke's 
"Monachism,"  London,  1817,  p.  308,  note. 

This  specimen  of  monastic  discipline  may  be  better  understood  when 
read  between  the  lines.  The  veneration  surroundmg  chicken-dung  in 
the  religious  system  of  the  Celts,  prior  to  the  introduction  of  the 
Christian  religion,  could  be  uprooted  in  no  more  complete  manner  than 
by  making  its  use  a  matter  of  scorn  and  contempt ;  history  is  replete 
with  examples  wherein  we  are  taught  that  the  things  which  are  held 
most  sacred  in  one  cult  are  the  very  ones  upon  which  the  fury  and 
scorn  of  the  superseding  cultus  are  wreaked.  On  this  point  read  the 
notes  taken  from  the  pamphlet  of  Mr.  James  Mooney,  in  regard  to  the 
superstitions  attaching  to  the  uses  of  chicken-dung  among  the  Irish 
peasantry. 


252  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  I  have  mentioned  the  sacrifice  of  cocks  by  Kelts ;  it  was,  and  still 
is,  all  over  Asia,  the  cheap,  common,  and  very  venial  substitute  for 
man." —  ("  Eivers  of  Life,"  Forlong,  London,  1883,  vol.  ii.  p.  274.) 

We  may  reasonably  infer  that  the  dung  of  chickens  as  used  by  the 
Irish  is  a  representative  of,  and  a  substitute  for,  human  ordure. 

The  Easter  season  which  has  preserved  and  transmitted  to  our  times 
so  many  pagan  usages,  has  among  its  superstitions  one  to  the  effect 
that  "  every  person  must  have  some  part  of  his  dress  new  on  Easter 
day,  or  he  will  have  no  good  fortune  that  year.  Another  saying  is 
that  unless  that  condition  be  fulfilled,  the  birds  are  likely  to  spoil  your 
clothes."—  (Brand,  "Pop.  Antiq."  vol.  i.  p.  165,  art.  "Easter  Day.") 

The  Kalmucks  believe  in  many  places  of  future  punishment,  one  of 
them  being  "  un  de  ces  sejours  est  couvert  d'une  nuee  d'ordures  et  de 
vidanges."  (Pallas,  Paris,  1793,  vol.  i.  p.  552.)  This  is  the  belief 
inculcated  by  their  Lamas. 

At  the  Lithuanian  festival  called  "  Sabarios,"  fowls  were  killed  and 
eaten.  "  The  bones  were  then  given  to  the  dog  to  eat ;  if  he  did  not 
eat  them  all  up,  the  remains  were  buried  under  the  dung  in  the  cattle- 
stall."— ("The  Golden  Bough,"  vol.  ii.  p.  70.) 

In  cases  of  sickness  "  the  inhabitants  of  a  village  are  forbidden  to 
wash  themselves  for  a  number  of  days,  »  ,  .  and  to  clean  their  cham- 
ber-pots before  sun-rise." —  ("The  Central  Eskimo,"  Dr.  Franz  Boas, 
in  Sixth  An.  Rep.  Bur.  of  Ethnol.  Wash.  D.  C.  1888,  p.  593.) 

"  We  have  seen  that  in  modern  Europe,  the  person  who  cuts  or  binds 
or  threshes  the  last  sheaf  is  often  exposed  to  rough  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  his  fellow-laborers.  For  example,  he  is  bound  up  in  the  last 
sheaf  and  thus  encased  is  carried  or  carted  about,  beaten,  drenched  with 
water,  thrown  on  a  dunghill,  etc."  —  ("The  Golden  Bough,"  i.  367.) 

In  several  parts  of  Germany,  the  Fool  of  the  Carnival  was  buried 
under  a  dung-heap.  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  256.)  Further  on,  is  given  this 
explanation  :  "  The  burying  of  the  representative  of  the  Carnival  under 
adung-heap  is  natural,  if  he  is  supposed  to  possess  a  quickening  and 
fertilizing  influence  like  that  ascribed  to  the  effigy  of  Death."  —  (Idem, 
vol.  i.  p.  270.) 

"  In  Siam  it  was  formerly  the  custom,  on  one  day  of  the  year,  to 
single  out  a  woman  broken  down  by  debauchery,  and  caiTy  her  on  a 
litter  through  all  the  streets,  to  the  music  of  drums  and  hautboys. 
The  mob  insulted  her  and  pelted  her  with  dirt ;  and,  after  having  car- 
ried her  through  the  whole  city,  they  threw  her  on  a  dunghill.  .  .  . 
They  believed  that  the  woman  thus  drew  upon  herself  all  the  maliga 
influences  of  the  air  and  of  evil  spirits." —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  196. 


ORDEALS   AND   PUNISHMENTS.  253 

In  Suabia  there  is  a  rough  harvest  game  in  ^vhich-one  of  the  labor- 
ers takes  the  part  of  the  sow ;  he  is  pursued  by  his  comrades  and  if 
they  catch  him  "  they  handle  him  roughly,  beating  him,  blackening  or 
dirtying  his  face,  throwing  him  into  filth.  ...  At  other  times  he  is 
put  in  a  wheelbarrow.  .  .  After  being  wheeled  round  the  village,  he 
is  flung  on  a  dunghill"  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  pp.  27,  28.) 

The  negroes  of  Guinea  are  firm  believers  in  the  theory  of  Obsession, 
and  have  a  god  "  Abiku "  who  "  takes  up  his  abode  in  the  human 
body."  He  generally  bothers  little  children,  who  sometimes  die.  "  If 
the  child  dies,  the  body  is  thrown  on  the  dirt-heap  to  be  devoured 
by  wild  beasts."  —  ("Fetichism,"  Baudin,  p.  57.) 

"  The  Iroquois  inaugurated  the  new  year  in  January  "  with  "  a  festi- 
val of  dreams.  ...  It  was  a  time  of  general  license.  .  .  .  Many  seized 
the  opportunity  of  paying  off  old  scores  by  belaboring  obnoxious  per- 
sons, .  .  .  covering  them  with  filth  and  hot  ashes."  —  ("  The  Golden 
Bough,"  vol.  ii.  p,  165,  quoting  Charlevoix,  "La  Nouvelle  France.") 

"  During  the  madder  harvest  in  the  Dutch  province  of  Zealand,  a 
stranger  passing  by  a  field  where  the  people  are  digging  the  madder 
roots,  '  will  sometimes  call  out  to  them,  Koortspillers '  (a  term  of  re- 
proach). Upon  this,  two  of  the  fleetest  runners  make  after  him,  and 
if  they  catch  him,  they  bring  him  back  to  the  madder  field  and  bury 
him  in  the  earth  up  to  his  middle  at  least,  jeering  at  him  all  the  while  ; 
they  then  ease  nature  before  his  face."  —  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  379.) 

"  ^NTow,  it  is  an  old  superstition  that  by  easing  nature  on  the  spot 
where  a  robbery  is  committed,  the  robbers  secure  themselves  for  a 
certain  time  against  interruption,  .  .  .  The  fact,  therefore,  that  the 
madder-diggers  resort  to  this  proceeding  in  presence  of  the  stranger 
proves  that  they  consider  themselves  robbers  and  him  as  the  person 
robbed."  —  (Idem,  p.  380.) 

In  connection  with  the  above,  the  following  deserves  consideration  : 
"  Reverence.  An  ancient  custom  which  obliges  any  person  easing  him- 
self near  the  highway  or  footpath,  on  the  word  *  reverence  '  being  given 
him  by  a  passenger,  to  take  off  his  hat  with  his  teeth,  and,  without 
moving  from  his  station,  to  throw  it  over  his  head,  by  which  it  fre- 
quently falls  into  the  excrement.  This  was  considered  as  a  punish- 
ment for  the  breach  of  delicacy.  A  person  refusing  to  obey  this  law 
might  be  pushed  backwards.  Hence,  perhaps,  the  term  'sir-rever- 
ence.' "  —  (Grose,  "  Diet,  of  Buckish  Slang.") 

It  is  more  likely  that  the  practice  had  some  connection  with  the 
fear  of  witchcraft,  or  the  evil  eye  of  the  stranger ;  we  can  hardly  credit 


254  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

that  peasant  y  living  in  an  age  when  the  highest  classes  received  their 

guests  at  bedside  receptions,  "  ruelles,"  or  in  their  "  cabinets  d'aisance," 
would  be  squeamish  in  the  trifling  matter  just  alluded  to. 

In  Japan  "  When  any  of  these  panders  die  .  .  .  their  bodies  are 
cast  upon  a  dunghill." —  (John  Saris,  in  Purchas,  i.  3G8,  a.  d.  1611.) 

"  The  tricks  of  the  fayry  called  Pach."  "  I  smurch  her  face  if  it  be 
cleane,  but  if  it  be  durty,  I  wash  it  in  the  next  pisse-pot  I  can  findo." 
—  ("Life  of  Robin  Goodfellow,"  Black  Letter,  London,  1628,  in  Haz- 
litt's  "Fairy  Tales,"  London,  1875,  p.  205.) 

Eut  the  "women  fayries,"  under  similar  circumstances,  "wash  their 
faces  and  hands  with  a  gilded  cliild's  clout."  —  (Idem,  p.  206.) 

"  Their  own  spirits  too  will  have  nothing  but  excrement  to  eat,  if 
during  life  the  rites  of  the  Bora  (Initiation)  have  not  been  duly  per- 
formed. With  this  compare  the  declaration  of  the  Indian  Manes  (xii. 
71)  that  a  Kahatya  who  has  not  done  his  duty,  will,  after  death,  have 
to  live  on  ordure  and  carrion.  And  in  the  Melanesian  Hades  the 
ghosts  of  the  wicked  have  nothing  to  eat  but  vile  refuse  and  excre- 
ment." —  (Personal  Letter  from  John  Frazer,  LL.D.,  to  Captain  Bourke, 
dated  Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  Dec.  24,  1889.) 

The  Australians  believed  that  if  a  man  did  not  allow  the  septum  of 
the  nose  to  be  pierced,  he  would  suffer  in  the  next  world.  "  As  soon 
as  ever  the  spirit  Egowk  left  the  body,  it  would  be  required,  as  a  pun- 
ishment, to  eat  Toorta-gwannang  "  (filth  not  proper  for  translation).  — 
("Aborigines  of  Victoria,"  Smyth,  vol.  i.  p.  274.) 

Among  some  of  the  Australian  tribes  is  found  a  potent  deity  named 
"  Pund-jel,"  whom  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  thinks  may  be  the  Eagle-Hawk. 
"  As  a  punisher  of  wicked  people,  Pund-jel  was  once  moved  to  drown 
the  world,  and  this  he  did  by  a  flood  which  he  produced  (as  Dr.  Brown 
says  of  another  affair)  by  a  familiar  Gulliverian  application  of  hy- 
draulics." —  ("Myth,  Bit.,  and  Relig.,"  Lang,  London,  1887,  ii.  5.) 

Maurice  cites  five  meritorious  kinds  of  suicide,  in  the  second  of 
which  the  Hindu  devotee  is  described  as  "covering  himself  with  cow- 
dung,  setting  it  on  fire,  and  consuming  himself  therein."  —  (Maurice, 
"Indian  Antiquities,"  London,  1800,  vol.  ii.  p.  49.) 

"Throw  this  slave  upon  the  dunghill." —  (King  Lear,  act.  ill  sc.  6.) 
When  Squire  Iden  killed  Jack  Kade  he  exclaimed  :  — 

"  Hence  will  I  drag  thee,  headlong  by  the  heels, 
Unto  a  dunghill  which  shall  be  thy  grave."  —  (2  K.  Henry,  vi.  10.) 

"  Steward.     Out,  dunghill."  —  (King  Lear,  act  iv.  sc.  6.) 


ORDEALS   AND   PUNISHMENTS.  255 

"Forbearance  from  meat  and  work  are  also  prescribed  to  a  single 
woman  in  case  the  sun  or  moon  (though  we  should  rather  call  it  a  bird 
flying  by)  should  let  any  uncleanness  drop  upon  her;  otherwise,  she 
might  be  unfortunate,  or  even  deprived  of  her  life."  —  (Crantz,  "  His- 
tory of  Greenland,"  London,  1767,  vol.  i.  p.  216.) 

The  "  bitter  water  "  of  the  Hebrew  ordeals  by  which  the  woman  ac- 
cused of  unfaithfulness  was  either  proved  innocent,  or  had  her  belly 
burst  upon  drinking,  presents  itself  in  this  connection.  —  (See  Num- 
bers V.) 

Dante,  in  his  cap.  xiii.  speaks  of  those  condemned  for  flattery  :  "  a 
crowd  immersed  in  ordure."  —  (Gary's  translation.) 

Ducange  alludes  to  what  may  have  been  an  ordeal  or  a  punishment  : 
"  Aquam  sordidam  et  stercoratem  super  sponsamjactare."  —  ("  In  Lege 
Longobardi,"  lib.  i.  tit.  16,  c.  8.) 

The  Hebrew  prophets  sat  on  dungheaps  while  the  recalcitrant  j)eo- 
ple  of  Israel  were  warned  :  "  Behold,  I  will  spread  dung  upon  your 
faces,  even  the  dung  of  your  solemn  feasts,  and  one  shall  take  you  away 
with  it."—  (Malachi  ii.  3.) 

By  reference  to  another  portion  of  this  volume,  it  will  be  seen  that 
stercoraceous  matter  was  deemed  potent  in  frustrating  witchcraft. 
Thus  a  mother  was  ordered  to  throw  a  "  changeling  "  child  upon  a  dung- 
hill (p.  403.)  The  prostitutes  of  Amsterdam  kept  horse-dung  in 
their  houses  for  good  luck,  etc.  Consequently,  when  we  read  of  the 
corpses  of  criminals  or  witches  having  been  thrown  upon  dunghills,  we 
may  let  fancy  indulge  the  idea  that  it  was  to  render  nugatory  any 
schemes  the  ghost  might  cherish  of  wreaking  revenge. 

The  historian  Suetonius  relates  that  tho  unfortunate  Roman  em- 
peror Vitellius  was  pelted  with  excrement  before  being  put  to  death. 

Among  the  imlawful  acts  for  Brahmans  or  Kshatriyas  who  are  com- 
pelled to  support  themselves  by  following  the  occupations  of  Yaisyas, 
is  selling  sesamum,  unless  "  they  themselves  have  produced  it  by  tillage. 
.  .  .  If  he  applies  sesamum  to  any  other  purpose  but  food,  anointing, 
and  charitable  gifts,  he  will  be  bom  again  as  a  worm,  and  together  with 
his  ancestors  be  plunged  into  his  own  ordure."  —  ('*  Vasishtha,"  cap.  ii. 
27-30.  "  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,"  Oxford,  1882,  vol.  xiv.,  edition 
of  Max  Miiller.  This  is  one  of  the  oldest  of  the  Sacred  Books.  The 
same  prohibition  is  to  be  found  in  "Prasna"  11,  "Adhyaya"  1, 
"  Kandika  "  2.) 


256  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XXXVII. 

INSULTS. 

TT  is  somewhat  singular  to  find  in  the  myths  of  the  Zunis  —  the 
-*-  very  people  among  whom  we  have  discovered  the  existence  of  this 
filthy  rite  of  urine-drinking — an  allusion  to  the  fact  that  to  throw 
urine  upon  persons  or  near  their  dwellings  was  to  he  looked  upon  as  an 
insult  of  the  gravest  character.  During  the  eai-ly  winter  of  1881  the 
author  was  at  the  Pueblo  of  Zuni,  New  Mexico,  while  Mr.  Frank  H. 
Gushing  was  engaged  in  the  researches  which  have  since  placed  him  at 
the  head  of  American  anthropologists,  and  then  heard  recited  by  the 
old  men  the  long  myth  of  the  young  boy  who  went  to  the  Spirit  Land 
to  seek  his  father.  One  of  the  incidents  upon  which  the  story-tellers 
dwelt  with  much  insistence  was  the  degradation  and  ignominy  in 
which  the  boy  and  his  poor  mother  lived  in  their  native  village,  as  was 
shown  by  the  fiict  that  their  neighbors  were  in  the  habit  of  emptying 
their  urine  vessels  upon  their  roof  and  in  front  of  their  door. 

The  threat  made  against  the  Jews  by  Sennacherib  (in  Isaiah  xxxvi. 
12)  deserves  consideration  in  this  connection;  and  also  the  threat  in 
the  Old  Testament,  "  There  shall  not  be  left  one  that  pisses  against 
the  wall." 

"  Connected  with  the  Samoan  wars,  several  other  things  may  be 
noted,  such  as  consulting  the  gods,  .  .  .  haranguing  each  other  previ- 
ous to  a  fight,  the  very  counterpart  of  Abijah,  King  of  Judah,  and 
even  word  for  word  with  the  filthy-tongued  Rabshakeh." —  ("  Samoa,'' 
Turner,  p.  194.) 

The  people  of  Samoa  have  a  myth  relating  a  separation  which  oc- 
curred between  the  natives  of  several  islands,  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
men  and  women  living  on  Tutuaila  "  began  to  make  a  dunghill  of  their 
floating  island." —  (Olosenga,  idem,  p.  225.) 

"  Nebuchadnezzar  likewise  gave  Zedekiah  (after  he  had  made  him 
dance  and  play  before  him  a  long  while)  a  laxative  drink,  so  that,  like 
a  beastly  old  fellow  (as  there  are  many  such  betwixt  York  and  London), 


INSULTS.  257 

totus  deturpatus  fuit,  he  smelt  as  ill  as  your  Ajax."     In  a  marginal 
reference,  he  adds :  "  According  to  an  old  ballad,  — 

'  And  all  to  b n  was  he,  was  he.'  " 

—  (Harington,  "Ajax,"  p.  35.) 

This  behavior,  disgusting  as  it  appears  to  us  in  all  its  features,  had 
its  parallel  in  the  conduct  of  a  prominent  member  of  European  aristoc- 
racy, who  was  wont  to  indulge  his  anger  in  a  manner  strikingly  similar 
to  the  above  at  such  moments  as  seemed  to  be  proper  for  the  punish- 
ment of  his  servants.  His  name  is  suppressed  at  the  request  of  tlje 
correspondent  furnishing  the  item. 

Niebuhr  says  that  the  grossest  insult  that  can  be  oflFered  to  a  man, 
especially  a  Mahometan,  in  Arabia,  is  to  spit  upon  his  beard,  or  to 
say  "  De  I'ordure  sur  ta  barbe." —  ("  Desc.  de  1' Arabic,"  Amsterdam, 
1774,  p.  26.) 

Niebuhr's  remarks  in  regard  to  the  offence  taken  by  the  Bedouins  at 
such  an  infraction  of  their  etiquette  as  flatulence  are  repeated  in  a 
vague  and  guarded  form  by  Maltebrun  ("  Univ.  Geog.,"  vol.  ii.  part 
"Arabia"). 

In    Angola,    Africa,    the   greatest   insult   is,   "Go   and   eat   s — t." 

—  (Muhongo.) 

"  Dunghill.  A  coward.  A  cock-pit  phrase,  all  but  gamecocks  being 
styled  dunghills." —  (Grose,  "Dictionary  of  Slang,  London,"  1811.) 

Tailors  who  accepted  the  wages  prescribed  by  law  were  styled 
"Dung"  by  the  "Flints,"  who  refused  them.  —  (Idem.) 

Among  the  rough  games  of  English  sailors  was  one,  "  The  Galley," 
in  which  a  mopful  of  excrement  was  thrust  in  a  landsman's  face.  — 
(Idem.) 

In  Angola,  Africa,  flatulence  is  freely  permitted  among  the  natives ; 
but  any  license  of  this  kind  taken  while  strangers  are  in  the  vicinity  is 
regarded  as  a  deadly  insult.  —  ("Muhongo,"  translated  by  Rev.  Mr. 
Chatelain.) 

In  the  report  of  one  of  the  early  American  explorations  to  the  Trans- 
Missouri  region  occurs  the  story  that  the  Republican  Pawnees,  Nebraska, 
once  (about  1780-90)  violated  the  laws  of  hospitality  by  seizing  a 
calumet-bearer  of  the  Omahas  who  had  entered  their  village,  and, 
among  other  indignities,  making  him  "  drink  urine  mixed  with  bison 
gall."  _  ("Long's  Expedition,"  Philadelphia,  1823,  vol.  i.  p.  300.) 

Bison  gall  itself  sprinkled  upon  raw  liver,  just  warm  from  the  car- 
cass, was  regarded  as  a  delicacy.     The  expression  "  excrement  eater  " 

17 


258  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

is  applied  by  the  Mandans  and  others  on  the  Upper  Missouri  as  a  term 
of  the  vilest  opprobrium,  according  to  Surgeon  Washington  Matthews, 
U.  S.  Army  (author  of  '*  Hidatsa,"  and  other  ethnological  works  of 
authority),  whose  remarks  are  based  upon  an  unusually  extended  and 
intelligent  experience. 

"  They  gave  me  the  abuse  of  the  Punjabi,  .  .  .  pelting  me  with 
sticks  and  cow-dung  till  I  fell  down  and  cried  for  mercy."  —  ("  Gemini," 
Rudyard  Kipling,  in  "Soldiers  Three,"  New  York,  1890.) 

"  May  the  garbage  of  the  foundations  of  the  city  be  thy  food ;  may 
the  drains  of  the  city  be  thy  drink."  —  ("  The  Chaldean  Account  of 
Genesis,"  George  Smith,  New  York,  1880.) 

Among  the  Cheyenne  expressions  of  contempt  is  to  be  found  one 
which  recalls  the  objurgations  of  the  Bedouins;  namely,  natsi-viz,  or 
"s — t-mouth." — (Personal  notes  of  September  25,  1878,  interview 
■with  the  chiefs  of  the  Northern  Cheyennes,  Ben  Clark,  interpreter.) 

Rev.  J.  Owen  Dorsey,  who  has  made  such  pi'olonged  and  careful 
studies  of  the  manners  and  myths  of  the  tribes  of  the  Siouan  stock, 
is  authority  for  the  statement  that  the  worst  insult  that  one  Ponca 
can  give  another  is  to  say,  "  You  are  an  eater  of  dog-dung ; "  and  it 
is  noticeable  that  the  words  of  the  expression  are  rarely  used  in 
the  language  of  every-day  life.  He  gives  other  examples  from  myths, 
etc.,  and  supplies  a  variant  of  the  story  narrated  by  Captain  Long  ; 
but  as  all  this  is  to  appear  in  one  of  the  Doctor's  coming  books,  it  is 
omitted  from  these  pages. 

The  Kamchatkans  say,  "  May  you  have  one  hundred  burning  lamps 
in  your  podex,"  "  Eater  of  faeces  with  his  fish-spawn,"  etc.  —  (Steller, 
translated  by  Bunnemej'er.) 

"  Stercus."  As  a  term  of  abuse.  —  "  Nolo  stercus  curiae  dici  Glau- 
ciam." — (Cicero,  "  De  Oratoribus,"  3,  41,  164;  Andrew's  "Latin 
Dictionary,"  New  York,  1879,  article  "Stercus.") 

Caracalla  put  to  death  those  who  made  water  in  front  of  his 
statues.  "  Damnati  sunt  eo  tempore  (that  is,  the  end  of  his  wars  with 
the  Germans)  qui  urinam  in  eo  loco  ferrant  in  quo  statuae  aut  imagines 
erant  principis."  —  (Aelius  Lampridius,  "Life  of  the  Emperor  Cara- 
calla," edition  of  Frankfort,  1588,  p.  186,  lines  43  and  44.) 

There  are  some  very  singular  laws  of  the  ancient  Burgundians  in 
regard  to  abusive  words.  "  Si  quis  alterum  concagatum  clamaverit, 
120  denariis  mulctetur." —  (Barrington,  "  Obs.  on  the  Statutes,"  Lon- 
don, 1775,  p.  315.) 


INSULTS.  259 

"  I  '11  pick  thy  head  upon  my  sword. 
And  piss  in  thy  very  visonomy." 
("Ram  Alley,"  Ludowick  Barry,  1611,  edition  of  London,  1825.) 

"  The  devil's  dung  in  thy  teeth." 
("  The  Honest  Whore,"  Thomas  Dekkar,  1604,  edition  of  London.  1825.) 

•*  Again  the  coarsest  word,  khara.  The  allusion  is  to  the  vulgar 
saying,  *  Thou  eatest  skitel '  (that  is, '  Thou  talkest  nonsense  ').  Decent 
pjnglish  writers  modify  this  to  '  Thou  eatest  dirt ; '  and  Lord  Beacons- 
field  made  it  ridiculous  by  turning  it  into  *  eating  sand.'  "  —  ("  Ara- 
bian Nights,"  Burton's  edition,  vol.  ii.  pp.  222,  223.) 

Headers  of  classical  history  will  recall  the  incident  of  the  outrage 
perpetrated  by  the  mob  of  Tarentum  upon  the  person  of  the  Roman 
ambassador  Posthumus,  282  B.  c.  A  buffoon  in  the  street  threw  filth 
upon  his  toga.  The  ambassador  refused  to  be  mollified,  and  tersely 
telling  his  assailants  that  many  a  drop  of  Tarentine  blood  would  be 
required  to  wash  out  the  stains,  took  out  his  departure.  A  cruel  war 
followed,  and  the  Tarentines  were  reduced  to  the  rank  of  a  conquered 
province.  —  (See  "  History  of  Rome,"  Victor  Duruy,  English  transla- 
tion, Boston,  1887,  vol.  i.  p.  462.) 

**  When  the  multitude  had  come  to  Jerusalem,  to  the  feast  of  un- 
leavened bread,  and  the  Roman  cohort  stood  over  the  temple,  .  . 
one  of  the  soldiers  pulled  back  his  garment,  and  stooping  down  after 
an  indecent  manner,  turned  his  posteriors  to  the  Jews,  and  spake  such 
words  as  might  be  expected  upon  such  a  posture."  The  nairation  de- 
scribes the  riot  which  followed  as  a  result,  and  ten  thousand  people 
were  killed.  —  (See  Josephus,  "  Wars  of  the  Jews,"  book  ii.  edition  of 
New  York,  1821.) 

The  dispute  between  Richard  the  Lion-Hearted  and  the  Arch-Duke 
of  Austria,  which  resulted  afterwards  in  the  incarceration  of  the  Eng- 
lish king  in  a  dungeon,  had  its  rise  in  the  great  insult  of  throwing  the 
Austrian  standard  down  into  a  privy.  Matthew  of  Paris  says  distinctly 
that  Richard  himself  did  this.  "Now  he,  being  over  well  disposed  to 
the  cause  of  the  Norman,  waxed  wroth  with  the  Duke's  train,  and  gave 
a  headstrong,  unseemly  order  for  the  Duke's  banner  to  be  cast  into  a 
cesspool."  —  (See  "  The  Third  Crusade  and  Richard  the  First,"  T.  A. 
Archer,  in  "  English  History  from  Contemporary  Writers,"  New  York, 
1889.) 

"  Bigot.    Out,  dunghill !    Darest  thou  brave  a  nobleman  ?  " 

("  King  John,"  iv.  3.) 


260  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

"  Oloster.   Shall  I  be  flouted  thus  by  dunghill  grooms  ? " 

("1  King  Henry  VI.,"  i.  3.) 

*'  York.   Base  dunghUl  villain  and  mechanical." 

("2  King  Henry  VI.,"  i.  3.) 

" '  Khara,'  meaning  dung,  is  the  lowest  possible  insult.  '  Ta-kara '  is 
the  commonest  of  insults,  used  also  by  modest  women.  I  have  heard 
a  mother  use  it  to  her  son."  —  (Burton,  "Arabian  Nights,"  vol.  ii. 
p.  59,  footnote.) 


MORTUARY   CEREMONIES.  2G1 


XXXVIII. 

MOETUARY  CEREMONIES. 

A  PARSI  is  defiled  by  touching  a  corpse.  "And  when  he  is  in 
"^^  contact  and  does  not  move  it,  he  is  to  be  washed  with  bull's 
urine  and  water."  —  ("  Shapast  la  Shayast,"  cap.  2. ;  "  Sacred  Books 
of  the  East,"  Max  Miiller,  editor,  Oxford,  1880,  pp.  262,  269,  270,  272, 
273,  279,  281,  282,  333,  349.) 

In  the  cremation  of  a  Hhidu  corpse  at  Bombay,  the  ashes  of  the 
pyre  were  sprinkled  with  water,  a  cake  of  cow-dung  placed  in  the 
centre,  and  around  it  a  small  stream  of  cow-urine ;  upon  this  were 
placed  plantain-leaves,  rice-cakes,  and  flowers.  —  ("  Modem  India," 
Monier  Williams,  p.  65.) 

"  They  who  return  from  the  funeral  must  touch  the  stone  of  Pria- 
pus,  a  fire,  the  excrement  of  a  cow,  a  grain  of  sesame,  and  water,  —  all 
symbols  of  that  fecundity  which  the  contact  with  a  corpse  might  have 
destroyed."  — ("Zool.  Mythol.,"  De  Gubernatis,  p.  49.) 

The  followers  of  Zoroaster  were  enjoined  to  pull  a  dead  body  out  of 
the  water.  "No  sin  attaches  to  him  for  any  bone,  hair,  grass,  flesh, 
dung,  or  blood  that  may  drop  back  into  the  water."  —  (Fargard  YL, 
Vendidad,  Zendavesta,  Darmesteter's  edition  ;  Max  Miiller's  edition  of 
the  '•  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,"  Oxford,  1880,  p.  70.) 

"  There  dies  a  man  in  the  depths  of  the  vale ;  a  bird  takes  flight 
from  the  top  of  the  mountain  down  into  the  depths  of  the  vale,  and  it 
eats  up  the  corpse  of  the  dead  man  there ;  then  up  it  flies  from 
the  depths  of  the  vale  to  the  top  of  the  mountain ;  it  flies  to  some 
one  of  the  trees  there,  —  of  the  hard-wooded  or  the  soft-wooded,  and 
upon  that  tree  it  vomits,  it  deposits  dung,  it  drops  pieces  from  the 
corpse.  ...  If  a  man  chop  any  of  that  wood  for  a  fire,  he  is  not 
regarded  as  defiled  because  .  .  .  Ahura-Mazda  answered,  '  There  is  no 
sin  upon  any  man  for  any  dead  matter  that  has  been  brought  by  dogs, 
by  birds,  by  wolves,  by  winds,  or  by  flies.' "  —  (Fargard  V.,  of  same 
work.) 


262  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

If  a  dog  had  died  on  a  piece  of  ground,  the  ground  had  to  lie  fallow 
for  a  year  ;  at  the  end  of  that  time,  "  they  shall  look  on  the  ground 
for  any  bones,  hair,  flesh,  dung,  or  blood  that  may  be  there."  —  (Far- 
gard  VI.) 

If  the  clothing  of  the  dead  "  has  not  been  defiled  with  seed  or 
sweat  or  dirt  or  vomit,  then  the  worshippers  of  Mazda  shall  wash  it 
with  gomez."  —  (Fargard  VII.  Gomez  (bull-urine)  again  alluded  to 
as  the  great  purifier  on  pp.  78-80,  104,  117,  118,  122,  123,  128,  182, 
183,   212.) 

The  sacred  vessels  that  had  been  defiled  by  the  touch  of  a  corpse 
were  to  be  cleaned  with  gomez.  —  (Idem,  pp.  91,  92.) 

The  most  efficacious  gomez  was  that  of  "an  ungelded  bull."  — 
(Idem,  p.  212.) 

"  They  shall  cover  the  surface  of  the  grave  with  ashes  or  cow- 
dung."  —  (Fargard  VIII.) 

"  Let  the  worshippers  of  Mazda  here  bring  the  urine  wherewith  the 
corpse-bearers  shall  wash  their  hair  and  their  bodies."  —  (Fargard 
VIII.     See,  also,  p.  201  of  this  volume.) 

In  describing  the  funerals  of  the  Eskimo,  Gilder  says  :  "  The  closing 
ceremony  was  a  most  touching  one.  After  '  Papa  '  had  returned  from 
the  grave,  Armow  went  out  of  doors  and  brought  in  a  piece  of  frozen 
something  that  it  is  not  polite  to  specify,  further  than  that  the  dogs 
had  entirely  done  with  it,  and  with  it  he  touched  ever}'  block  of  snow 
on  a  level  with  the  beds  of  the  igloo.  The  article  was  then  taken  out 
of  doors  and  tossed  up  in  the  air,  to  fall  at  his  feet ;  and  by  the 
manner  in  which  it  fell  he  could  joyfully  announce  that  there  was 
no  liability  of  further  deaths  in  camp  for  some  time  to  come."  — 
C'Schwatka's  Search,"  Gilder,  p.  234.) 

"The  Africans  have  an  evil  spirit  called  *  Abiku,'  who  takes  up  his 
abode  in  the  human  body."  This  spirit  is  believed  to  cause  the  death 
of  children.  "  If  the  child  dies,  the  body  is  thrown  on  the  dirt- 
heap."— ("Fetichism,"  Baudin,  p.  57.) 

There  is  also  a  purification  of  the  soul  of  the  dying  by  the  same 
peculiar  methods.     In  Coromandel,^  the  dying  man  is  so  placed  that 

*  Au  Coromandel,  ils  mettent  le  visage  du  mourant  sur  le  derritre  d'une  vache, 
Ifevent  la  queue  de  I'animal  et  I'excitent  h  lacher  son  urine  sur  le  visage  ...  si 
I'urine  coule  sur  la  face  du  malade,  I'assemblee  s'ecrie  de  joye  et  le  compte  parrai 
les  hienheureux,  mais  .  .  .  si  la  vache  n'est  pas  d'humeur  d'uriner,  on  s'en  atllige. 
—  (Picart,  "  Coutumes  et  c^r^monies  religieuses, "  etc.,  Amsterdam,  1729,  vol.  vii. 
p.  28.) 


MORTUARY   CEREMONIES.  2G3 

his  face  will  come  under  the  tail  of  a  cow ;  the  tail  is  lifted,  and  the 
cow  excited  to  void  her  urine.  If  the  urine  fall  on  the  face  of  the  sick 
man,  the  people  cry  out  with  joy,  considering  him  to  be  one  of  the 
blessed ;  but  if  the  sacred  animal  be  in  no  humor  to  gratify  their 
wishes,  they  are  greatly  afflicted. 

"  The  inhabitants  of  the  coast  of  Coromandel  carried  those  of  their 
sick  who  were  on  the  point  of  death,  as  a  last  resource,  to  the  back  of 
a  fat  cow,  whose  tail  they  twisted  to  make  her  urinate ;  if  the  cow's 
urine  spread  over  the  whole  face  of  the  patient,  it  was  a  very  good 
sign  to  the  dirty  rascals."  —  (Paullini,  pp.  80,  81.) 

With  equal  solicitude  does  the  Hottentot  medicine-man  follow  the 
remains  of  his  kinsmen  to  the  grave,  aspersing  with  the  same  sacred 
liquid  the  corpse  of  the  dead  and  the  persons  of  the  mourners  who 
bewail  his  fate.' 

At  Hottentot  funerals,  "  two  old  men,  the  friends  or  relations  of  the 
deceased,  enter  each  circle  and  sparingly  dispense  their  streams  upon 
each  person,  so  that  all  may  have  some ;  all  the  company  receive  their 
water  with  eagerness  and  veneration.  This  being  done,  each  steps 
into  the  hut,  and  taking  up  a  handful  of  ashes  from  the  hearth,  comes 
out  by  the  passage  made  by  the  corpse,  and  strews  the  ashes  by  little 
and  little  upon  the  whole  company.  This,  they  say,  is  done  to  humble 
their  pride."  — (Kolbein,  p.  401.) 

"  It  is  a  pity  that  men  in  a  savage  state  should  take  delight  in 
doing  that  which  is  nasty,  but  such  is  the  fact.  It  is  a  very  common 
custom  for  the  tribe,  or  that  portion  of  it  who  are  related  to  the  one 
who  has  died,  to  rub  themselves  with  the  moisture  that  comes  from 
the  dead  friend.  They  rub  themselves  with  it  until  the  whole  of 
them  have  the  same  smell  as  the  corpse."  —  ("  Aborigines  of  Victoria," 
Smyth,  vol.  i.  p.  131.)  But  in  a  footnote  he  adds  that  some  of  the 
Australians  will  not  touch  a  dead  body  with  the  naked  hand. 

In  the  mortuary  ceremonies  of  the  Encoimter  Bay  tribe  (South 
Australians),  "the  old  women  put  human  excrement  on  their  heads, — 
the  sign  of  deepest  mourning." —  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  113.) 

The  corpse  of  an  Australian  chief  was  surrounded  "with  wailing 
women,  smeared  with  filth  and  ashes."  —  ("  Native  Tribes  of  South 
Australia,"  Adelaide,  1879,  p.  75,  received  through  the  kindness  of 
the  Eoyal  Society,  New  South  Wales,  Sydney,  T.  B.  Kyngdon, 
Secretary.) 

^  Picart,  Coutumes  et  ceremonies  religieuses,  etc.,  Amsterdam,  1729,  vol.  vii., 
pp.  52,  57. 


264  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

"  In  the  burial  ceremonies,  the  women  of  many  tribes  besmear  or 
plaster  their  heads  with  excrement  and  pipe-clay."  —  (Personal  letter 
from  John  F.  Mann,  Esq.,  dated  Neutral  Bay,  Sydney,  New  South 
Wales.) 

"  When  a  child  dies,  women  who  carried  it  in  their  hands  must 
throw  their  jackets  away  if  the  child  has  urinated  on  them.  This  is 
jjart  of  the  custom  that  everything  that  has  come  in  contact  with  a 
dead  person  must  be  destroyed."  —  ("The  Central  Eskimo,"  Boas, 
p.  612.) 

The  Kootenays  of  Canada  have  a  ceremonial  aspersion  after  fu- 
nerals. "  When  those  who  have  buried  the  body  return,  they  take  a 
thorn  bush,  dip  it  into  a  kettle  of  water,  and  sprinkle  the  doors  of  all 
lodges."  —  (''Report  on  the  Northwest  Tribes  of  Canada,"  Dr.  Franz 
Boas,  to  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science," 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne  meeting,  1889,  p.  46.) 

Describing  Italian  funerals,  Blunt  says  :  "  When  the  procession  has 
reached  the  church,  the  bier  is  set  down  in  the  nave,  and  the  officiating 
priest,  in  the  course  of  the  appointed  service,  sprinkles  the  body  with 
holy  water  three  times,  —  a  rite  in  all  probability  ensuing  from  that 
practised  by  the  Romans,  of  thrice  sprinkling  the  bystanders  with  the 
same  element." —  ("Vestiges,"  p.  183.) 

In  the  Tonga  Islands,  there  are  two  principal  personages,  —  Tooi- 
tonga  and  Veachi,  —  who  are  believed  to  be  the  living  representatives 
of  powerful  gods.  Upon  the  death  of  Tooitonga,  certain  ceremonies 
are  practised,  among  which  :  "  The  men  now  approach  the  mount, 
i.  e.,  the  funeral  mound,  it  being  dark,  and,  if  the  phrase  be  allowable, 
perform  the  devotions  to  Cloacina,  after  which  they  retire.  As  soon 
as  it  is  daylight  the  following  morning,  the  women  of  the  first  rank, 
wives  and  daughters  of  the  greatest  chiefs,  assemble  with  their  female 
attendants,  bringing  baskets,  one  holding  one  side  and  one  the  other, 
advancing  two  and  two,  with  large  shells  to  clear  up  the  depositions  of 
the  preceding  night,  and  in  this  ceremonious  act  of  humiliation,  no 
female  of  the  highest  consequence  refuses  to  take  her  part.  Some  of 
the  mourners  in  the  '  fy toca  '  generally  come  out  to  assist ;  so  that,  in 
a  very  little  while,  the  place  is  made  perfectly  clean.  This  is  repeated 
the  fourteen  following  nights,  and  as  punctually  cleaned  away  by 
sunrise  every  morning.  No  persons  but  the  agents  are  allowed  to  be 
witnesses  of  these  extraordinary  ceremonies ;  at  least,  it  would  be 
considered  highly  indecorous  and  irreligious  to  be  so.  On  the  sixteenth 
day,  early  in  the  morning,  the  same  females  again  assemble ;  but  now 


•     MORTUARY  CEREMONIES.  265 

they  are  dressed  up  in  the  finest  'gnatoo,'  and  most  beautiful  Hamao 
mats,  decorated  with  ribbons,  and  with  wreaths  of  flowers  round  their 
necks ;  they  also  bring  new  baskets  ornamented  with  flowers,  and  little 
brooms,  very  tastefully  made.  Thus  equipped  they  approach,  and  act 
as  if  they  had  the  same  task  to  do  as  before,  pretending  to  clear  away 
the  dirt,  though  no  dirt  is  now  there,  and  take  it  away  in  their  blan- 
kets. .  .  .  The  natives  themselves  used  to  regret  that  the  filthy  part 
of  these  ceremonies  was  necessary  to  be  performed,  .  .  .  and  that  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  most  exalted  nobles,  even  of  the  most  delicate 
females  of  rank,  to  perform  the  meanest  and  most  disgusting  offices, 
rather  than  that  the  sacred  grounds  in  which  he  was  buried  should 
remain  polluted."  (Dillon's  "Expedition  in  Search  of  La  Perouse," 
London,  1829,  vol.  ii.  pp.  57-59.)  Dillon  says  that  this  "must  be 
considered  a  religious  rite,  standing  upon  the  foundation  of  very 
ancient  customs."  —  (Idem,  p.  57.) 


266  SCATALOGIC   RITES  OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XXXIX. 

MYTHS. 

"  A  LL  peoples  have  invented  myths  to  explain  why  they  observed 
-^  certain  customs." —  ("  The  Golden  Bough,"  vol.  ii.  p.  128.) 

"  Myth  changes  while  custom  remains  constant ;  men  continue  to  do 
what  their  fathers  did  before  them,  though  the  reasons  on  which  their 
fathers  acted  have  long  been  forgotten.  The  history  of  religion  is  a 
long  attempt  to  reconcile  old  custom  with  new  reason ;  to  find  a 
sound  theory  for  an  absurd  practice."  —  (Idem,  p.  62.) 

The  Australians  have  a  myth  of  the  Creation  of  Man  ;  it  is  given  in 
Latin  :  **  Ningorope  Isetitiae  plena  in  latrina  lutum  amoene  erubescens 
cemebat ;  hoc  in  hominis  figuram  formabat,  quse  tactu  divae  motum 
vitalem  sumebat  et  done  ridebat." — ("Aborig.  of  Victoria,"  Smyth, 
vol.  i.  p.  425.) 

This  myth  is  given  in  English  from  another  authority,  on  next  page 
of  this  volume. 

The  Creation  Myth  of  the  Australians  relates  that  the  god  "  Bund- 
jil  oceanum  creavit  minctione  per  plures  dies  in  terrarum  orbem. 
Bullarto  Bulgo  magnam  lotii  copiam  indicat."  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  429.) 
(Bund-jil  created  the  ocean  by  urinating  for  many  days  upon  the  orb 
of  the  earth.)  The  natives  say  that  the  god  being  angry  "  Bullarto 
Bulgo  "  upon  the  earth.    Bullarto  Bulgo  indicates  a  gi*eat  flow  of  urine. 

The  same  myth  has  already  been  given  from  Andrew  Lang,  under 
"  Ordeals  and  Punishments." 

In  the  cosmogonical  myths  of  the  islanders  of  Kadiack,  it  is  related 
that  the  first  woman,  "  by  making  water,  produced  seas."  —  (Lisiansky, 
"Voy.  round  the  World,"  London,  1814,  p.  197.) 

"  In  the  fourth  story  "  (i.  e.,  stories  told  by  the  Kalmucks  and  Mon- 
gols) "  it  is  under  the  excrement  of  a  cow  that  the  enchanted  gem, 
lost  by  the  daughter  of  the  king,  is  found."  —  (''Zool.  Mythol."  De 
Gubematis,  p.  129.) 

In  the  mythic  lore  of  the  Hindus,  the  god  Utanka  sets  out  on  a  jour- 
ney, protected  by  Indras.     "  On  his  way,  he  meets  a  gigantic  bull,  and 


MYTHS.  267 

a  horseman  who  bids  him,  if  he  would  succeed,  eat  the  excrement  of 
the  bull;  he  does  so,  rinsing  his  mouth  afterwards." —  (Idem,  p.  80.) 

Further  on  we  learn  that  Utanka  was  told  "  the  excrement  of  the 
bull  was  the  ambrosia  which  made  him  immortal  in  the  kingdom  of 
the  serpents."  (Idem,  pp.  81,  95.)  Here  we  have  the  analogue  of 
the  use  of  excrement  and  urine  in  Europe  to  bafiBe  witches,  and  of  the 
drinking  of  the  Siberian  girl's  urine,  which  in  all  probability  was  prof- 
fered to  the  guest  as  an  assurance  that  no  witchcraft  was  in  con- 
templation, or  else  to  baffle  the  witches,  much  as,  in  England,  bridal 
couples  urinated  through  the  weddmg  ring. 

The  Chinese  have  a  mythical  animal  which  has  been  identified  with 
the  Tapir;  it  is  called  the  Mih ;  to  it  they  ascribe  the  power  to  eat 
iron  and  copper.  "For  this  reason  the  urine  of  this  animal  is  pre- 
scribed when  a  person  has  swallowed  iron  or  copper ;  it  will,  in  a  short 
time,  change  them  into  water." — ("Chinese  Repository,"  Canton, 
1839,  vol.  vii.  pp.  46,  47.) 

"  The  story  of  Joa  lo  Praube  is  repeated  almost  word  for  word  in  the 
adventures  of  the  Kamtchatkan  god  '  Kutka ; '  or,  to  be  more  exact, 
there  is  a  myth  in  which  it  is  narrated  that  that  god  had  a  great  many 
tricks  played  upon  him,  in  one  of  which  he  runs  sticks  into  his  gluteal 
region." —  (Steller,  translated  by  Bunnemeyer.) 

This  god  Kutka  was  a  great  sodomite,  and  in  some  points,  resembled 
the  anti-natural  god  of  the  Sioux. 

Speaking  of  the  god  "Aidowedo,"  the  serpent  in  the  Rainbow  as 
believed  by  the  Negroes  of  Guinea,  Father  Baudin  says :  "  He  who 
finds  the  excrement  of  this  serpent  is  rich  forever,  for  with  this  talis- 
man he  can  change  grains  of  com  into  shells  which  pass  for  money." 
("  Fetichism,"  Rev.  F.  Baudin,  New  York,  1885,  p.  47.)  He  goes 
on  to  narrate  a  very  amusing  tale  to  the  effect  that  the  negroes  got  the 
idea  that  a  prism  in  his  possession  gave  him  the  power  to  bring  the 
Rainbow  down  into  his  room  at  will,  and  that  he  could  obtain  unlimited 
quantities  of  the  precious  excrement. 

Another  myth  of  the  foolish  god  "Kutka"  represents  him  as  falling 
in  love  with  his  own  excrement  and  wooing  it  as  his  bride ;  he  takes  it 
home  in  his  sleigh,  puts  it  in  his  bed,  and  is  only  restored  to  a  sense 
of  his  absurd  position  by  the  vile  smell.  —  (Steller,  translated  by 
Bunnemeyer.) 

Possibly  all  this  may  be  a  myth  to  explain  or  to  represent  the  state 
of  mind  into  which  those  who  indulged  in  the  "  muck-a-moor "  were 
thrown,  but  even  this  interpretation  seems  far-fetched. 


268  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

Sir  John  Moore,  it  is  stated,  fell  in  love  with  his  own  urine^  and  we 
have  read  from  Montaigne  the  story  of  the  French  gentleman  who  pre- 
served his  egestse  to  show  to  his  visitors. 

The  tribes  of  the  Narinyeri,  Encounter  Bay,  South  Australia,  have 
a  legend  that  difference  in  language  was  caused  when  certain  of  their 
ancestors  "  ate  the  contents  of  the  intestines  of  the  goddess  '  Wurruri.' " 
—  ("Nat.  tribes  of  South  Australia,"  Adelaide,  1879,  p.  60,  received 
through  the  kindness  of  the  Koy.  Soc,  Sydney,  N.  S.  Wales,  T.  B. 
Kyngdon,  Secretary.) 

In  the  same  chapter  we  are  told  of  the  omission  of  one  or  two  cere- 
monies "which  were  too  indecent  for  general  readers  "  (p.  61). 

In  the  "  Bachiller  de  Salamanca,"  Le  Sage  has  a  hero  whose  misfor- 
times  would  lead  us  to  suspect  that  Le  Sage  had  been  reading  of  some 
of  the  doings  of  the  Kamtchatkan  god  *'  Kutka,"  who,  among  the  nu- 
merous pranks  played  upon  him  by  his  enemies,  the  mice,  suffered  the 
ignominy  of  having  "  a  bag  made  offish-skin  attached  to  his  orificium  ani 
while  he  lay  sound  asleep.  On  his  way  home  Kutka  desired  to  relieve 
nature,  but  was  much  surprised,  on  leaving,  at  the  insignificant  deposit 
notwithstanding  he  had  freed  himself  of  so  great  a  burden. 

"  Surprised  at  his  cleanliness,  he  narrated  the  circumstances  to  Clachy 
(his  wife),  who  soon  discovered  the  true  state  of  affairs,  and  pulling  off 
Kutka's  pantaloons,  detached  the  heavily  laden  bag  with  great  laugh- 
ters."—  (Steller,  translated  by  Bunnemeyer.) 

In  the  14th  century  farce  of  "Le  Muynier,"  the  Miller  has  ab- 
sorbed some  of  the  popular  ideas  of  his  day,  professed  by  certain  phil- 
osophers of  the  time.  He  believes  that,  at  the  moment  of  death,  the 
soul  of  a  man  escapes  by  the  anus,  and  warns  the  priest  to  absolve  him 
from  his  sins,  saying :  "  Hon  ventre  trop  se  determine.  Helas !  Je 
ne  scay  que  je  face  ;  ostez  vous." 

The  priest  answers  :  "  Ha !  sauf  vostre  grace ! " 

Then  the  miller  remarks  :  "  Ostez-vous,  car  je  me  conchye." 

The  wife  and  the  priest  pull  the  sick  man  to  the  edge  of  the  bed  and 
place  him  in  such  a  position  that  if  the  doctrine  of  soul-departure  by 
the  anus  be  true,  they  may  witness  the  miller's  final  performance. 
The  phenomenon  of  rectal  fliitulence  is  now  observed,  when  suddenly,  to 
the  consternation  of  the  wife  and  priest,  a  demon  appears  and  placing 
a  sack  over  the  dying  miller's  anus,  catches  the  rectal  gas  and  flies  off 
in  sulphurous  vapor.  —  ("Med.  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  Minor,  p.  84, 
translated  from  "  Le  Moyen  Age  Medical,"  by  Dupuoy.) 

It  was  generally  believed  in  Europe  that  the  eggs  of  the  Basilisk  or 


MYTHS.  269 

Cockatrice  could  only  be  hatched  by  a  toad  or  by  the  heat  of  a  manure- 
pile. —  (See  "Melusine,"  Paris,  January-February,  1890,  p.  20.) 

Ireland  has  been  called  the  "  Urinal  of  the  Planets  "  from  the  con- 
stant and  copious  rains  which  visit  it.  —  (See  Grose,  "  Diet,  of  Buckish 
Slang,"  London,  1811.) 

The  Apaches  have  a  myth,  or  story,  the  analogue  of  the  "  Fee-fo- 
Fum  "  of  our  own  childhood ;  but  the  giant,  instead  of  smelling  the 
blood  of  an  Englishman,  in  the  words  given  in  Spanish,  "huele  la 
cagada." 

The  Chinese  myth  concerning  the  wonderful  digestive  powers  of  the 
"  Mih  "  has  its  counterpart  in  the  ancient  belief  that  the  same  power 
was  possessed  by  the  Ostrich. 

"  The  Wangwana  and  Wanyumbo  informed  me  .  .  .  that  if  the  ele- 
phant observes  the  excrement  of  the  rhinoceros  unscattered,  he  waxes 
furious,  and  proceeds  instantly  in  search  of  the  criminal,  when  woe 
befall  him  if  he  is  sulky,  and  disposed  to  battle  for  the  proud  privilege 
of  leaving  his  droppings  as  they  fall.  The  elephant,  in  that  case, 
breaks  off  a  heavy  branch  of  a  tree,  or  uproots  a  stout  sapling  like  a 
boat's  mast,  and  belabors  the  unfortunate  beast  until  he  is  glad  to  save 
himself  by  hurried  flight.  For  this  reason,  the  natives  say,  the  rhi- 
noceros always  turns  round  and  thoroughly  scatters  what  he  has 
dropped."  —  ("  Through  the  Dark  Continent,"  Henry  M.  Stanley,  New 
York,  1878,  vol.  i.  p.  477.) 

"  In  other  myths,  in  the  Brahmanas,  Prajapati  creates  man  from  his 
body,  or  rather  the  fluid  of  his  body  becomes  a  tortoise,  the  tortoise 
becomes  a  man,  etc."  —  ("Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,"  Andrew  Lang. 
London,  1887,  vol.  ii.  p.  248.  See  also  under  chapter  on  the  Mistle- 
toe, p.  99  of  this  volume.) 

"  Moffatt  is  astonished  at  the  South  African  notion  that  the  sea  was 
accidentally  created  by  a  girl."  ("Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion," 
Lang,  vol.  i.  p.  91.)     Perhaps  this  tale  belongs  to  our  series  of  myths. 

"  The  Encounter  Bay  people  have  another  myth,  which  might  have 
been  attributed  by  Dean  Swift  to  the  Yahoos,  so  foul  an  origin  does  it 
attribute  to  mankind."  —  (Idem,  Lang,  vol.  i.  p.  170.) 

"As  the  mythology  and  traditions  of  other  heathen  nations  are  more 
or  less  immoral  and  obscene,  so  it  is  with  these  people."  ("Nat. 
Trib.  of  S.  Australia,"  p.  200.)  "Miugarope  having  retired  upon  a 
natural  occasion  was  highly  pleased  with  the  red  color  of  her  excre- 
ment, which  she  began  to  mould  into  the  form  of  a  man,  and  tickling 
it,  it  showed  signs  of  life  and  began  to  laugh."  —  (Idem,  p.  201.) 


270  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

TLe  myth  relating  that  differences  in  language  sprung  up  after  cer- 
tain of  the  tribes  had  eaten  the  excrement  of  the  goddess  "  Wurruri " 
is  given  on  p.  268  ;  it  has  been  recited  in  this  volume  on  a  previous 
page.  There  was  another  god,  named  Nurunduri,  of  whom  the  story 
is  told  that  he  once  made  water  in  a  certain  spot,  "  from  which  circum- 
stance the  place  is  called  Kainjamin  (to  make  water.) "  —  (Idem,  p. 
205.) 

Among  the  Bilgula  of  British  Columbia,  there  is  a  myth  which  re- 
lates that  a  certain  stump  of  a  tree  was  a  cannibal  and  had  captured  a 
girl.  Once,  when  he  had  gone  out  to  fish  for  halibut,  "  he  ordered  his 
urinary  vessel  to  call  him  if  the  girl  should  make  an  attempt  to  escape. 
When  she  did  so,  the  vessel  cried,  'Rota-gota,  Rota-gota,  gota.'"  — 
(Personal  letter  from  Dr.  Franz  Boas,  Clark  University,  Worcester, 
Mass. ) 

There  is  a  riddle  among  the  Kamtchatkans  in  regard  to  human  feces : 
"  My  father  has  numerous  forms  and  dresses ;  my  mother  is  warm  and 
thin  and  bears  every  day.  Before  I  am  born,  I  like  cold  and  warmth, 
but  after  I  am  bom,  only  cold.  In  the  cold  I  am  strong,  and  in  the 
warmth,  weak  ;  if  cold,  I  am  seen  far ;  if  warm,  I  am  smelled  far."  — 
(Steller,  translated  by  Bunnemeyer.) 

Among  some  of  the  Eskimo  tribes  the  Raven  is  represented  as  talk- 
ing to  its  own  excrement  and  consulting  it ;  excrement  occurs  fre- 
quently in  their  legends.  —  (Personal  letter  from  Dr.  Boas,  as  above.) 

From  the  preceding  paragraph  we  see  that  the  Eskimo  must  have 
formerly,  even  if  they  do  not  now,  consulted  excrement  in  their  Divin- 
ation ;  the  extract  from  Gilder,  given  under  "  Mortuary  Ceremonies " 
confirms  this  hypothesis. 

The  people  of  Kamtchatka  believed  that  rain  was  the  urine  of 
Billutschi,  one  of  their  gods,  and  of  his  genii ;  but,  after  this  god  has 
urinated  enough,  he  puts  on  a  new  dress  made  in  the  form  of  a  sack, 
and  provided  with  fringes  of  red  seal  hair,  and  variously  colored  strips 
of  leather.     These  represent  the  origin  of  the  Rainbow. 

The  Kamtchatkau  god  Kutka  was  once  pursued  by  enemies,  but 
saved  himself  "  by  ejecting  from  his  bowels  all  kinds  of  berries,  which 
detained  his  pursuers." 

The  myths  of  the  Kamtchatkans  offer  a  parallel  to  the  stories  that 
the  presents  of  the  devil  always  turned  into  dross.  There  is  the  story 
of  the  god  Kutka,  upon  whom,  as  we  have  seen,  many  tricks  were 
played.  In  one  the  food  with  which  he  supplied  himself  "turned  into 
peat,  rotten  wood,  and  piss."  —  (Steller,  translated  by  Bunnemeyer.) 


MYTHS.  271 

"  The  Central  Eskimo  believe  that  rain  is  the  urine  of  a  deity."  — 
("  See  "  The  Central  Eskimo,"  Boas,  p.  600.) 

"Amber  (as  some  thinke)  is  made  of  whale's  dung." —  (John  Leo, 
"Observ.  of  Africa,"  in  Purchas,  vol.  ii.  p.  772.) 

Ambergris  was  anciently  supposed  to  be  the  dung  of  the  whale  or 
other  monster  of  the  sea.  — (Air.  W.  W.  Rockhill.) 

This  view  about  the  origin  of  amber  was  not  credited  by  Avicenna. 
"Ambram  non  esse  stercus  animalis  maris." —  (Vol.  i.  p.  273,  blO.) 

In  the  liturgy  of  the  hill  tribes  of  the  Nilgherris,  it  is  related  — 

"  Mada  a  urine  dans  le  feu." 

'*  Mada  a  fiente  a  la  face  du  soleiL" 

—  (Quoted  in  "  Les  Primitifs,"  p.  245.) 

Reclus,  in  the  same  work,  gives  a  fragment  of  an  Orphic  song : 
"  Glorieux  Jupiter,  le  plus  grand  des  Olympiens,  toi  qui  te  plais  dans 
les  crottins  des  brebis,  qui  aimes  a  t'enfoncer  dans  les  fientes  des  chevaux 
et  des  mulcts."  —  (p.  246,  quoting  fi-om  "  Fragmenta  Orphei,"  edited 
by  Hermann.) 

"  The  blessed  Apostle  Paul,  being  rapt  in  contemplation  of  divine 
blissfulness,  compares  all  the  chief  felicities  of  the  earth,  esteeming 
them  (to  use  his  own  words)  as  '  stercora,'  most  filthy  dung  in  regard 
of  the  joys  he  hoped  for." —  (Hariugton,  "Ajax,"  p.  26.) 

"  He  is  truly  wise  that  accounteth  all  earthly  things  as  dung  that 
he  may  win  Christ." — (Matt.  xvii.  23,  quoted  in  Thomas  a  Kempis, 
cap.  iv.,  "  Of  the  Doctrine  of  Truth.") 

"  It  was  current  among  the  small  boys  at  school  some  thirty-five 
years  since,  that  were  a  man  to  make  water  whilst  in  connection  with 
a  woman  she  would  die."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Prof.  Frank  Rede 
Fowke,  South  Kensington  Museum,  London,  England.) 

The  name  of  the  city  of  Chicago  has  been  traced  by  some  philologist 
to  the  Indian  word  for  skunk  ;  and  it  is  said  to  be  "  equal  to  bestiola 
foeda  mingens."  The  urine  of  this  little  animal  was  believed  by  some 
of  the  Indian  tribes  to  be  capable  of  blinding  the  man  in  whose  eyes 
it  entered  ;  the  animal  itself  was  deified  by  the  Aztecs  under  the  name 
of  Tezcatlipoca. 

For  the  interpretation  given  for  the  word  "  Chicago,"  see  the  work 
"  Indian  Names  of  Places  near  the  Great  Lakes,"  by  Captain  Dwight 
Kelton,  U.  S.  Army,  Chicago,  Illinois,  1888. 


272  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 


XL. 

UEINOSCOPY,   OR  DIAGNOSIS   BY  URINE. 

nnHE  examination  of  the  urine  and  feces  of  the  sick  seems  to  have 
-*-  obtained  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  among  all  sorts  of  people  ; 
but  in  the  earlier  stages  of  human  progress  it  was  complicated  with 
ideas  of  divination  and  forecast,  which  would  make  it  a  religious 
observance. 

The  health  of  a  patient  was  shown  by  the  condition  of  his  urine.  — 
(Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  6.) 

The  Arabians  used  to  bring  to  their  doctors  "  the  water  of  their  sick 
in  phials." —  (Burton,  "Arabian  Nights,"  vol.  iv.  p.  11.) 

In  the  index  to  the  Works  of  Avicenna  there  are  two  hundred  and 
seventy-five  references  to  the  appearance,  etc.,  of  the  urine  of  the  sick. 
—  (Translation  of  Avicenna  made  by  Gerard  of  Cremona,  edition  of 
Venice,  1595.) 

"Apothecaries  used  to  carry  the  water  of  their  patients  to  the 
physician."  —  (Fosbroke,  "Encyclopaedia  of  Antiquities,"  vol.  i.  p.  526, 
article  "  Urine.") 

To  determine  whether  a  man  had  an  affection  of  the  lungs  or  liver, 
some  of  his  urine  was  cast  upon  wheat  bran,  which  was  then  put  aside 
in  a  cool  place  ;  if  worms  appeared,  he  was  afflicted,  etc.  —  (Beckherius, 
"  Med.  Microcosmus,"  p.  62.) 

From  an  examination  of  the  feces  and  urine  of  the  patient  to  deter- 
mine his  present  state  of  health,  and  if  possible  to  make  a  prognosis  of 
his  future  condition,  was,  in  the  minds  of  ignorant  or  half-educated 
men  merely  the  first  step  in  the  direction  of  determining  the  future  of 
the  commonwealth  by  an  inspection  of  the  viscera  and  the  excrement  of 
the  victims  whose  blood  smoked  upon  its  altars.  The  Romans  were 
addicted  to  this  mode  of  divination,  which  Schurig  incorrectly  styles 
"  Anthropomancy."  He  relates  that  Heliogabalus  was  especially  fond 
of  this,  and,  indeed,  he  credits  that  voluptuary  with  its  introduction, 
and  expresses  his  gratification  that  he  met  his  deserts  in  being  killed 


URINOSCOPY,   OK  DIAGNOSIS   BY   URINE.  273 

in  a  privy  and  left  to  die  in  ordure.  The  Saxons  also  were  given  to 
this  method  of  consulting  the  future.  —  (See  "  Chylologia,"  pp.  749, 
750.) 

"  Uromantie.  ff.  (Med.  et  Divin.),  mot  forme  de  **  ouron,"  urine,  et 
"  manteia,"  divination,  qui  signifie  I'art  de  diviner  par  le  moyen  des 
urines  I'etat  present  d'nne  maladie,  et  d'en  predire  les  evenements 
futurs."  —  ("Encyc.  ou  Diet.  Rais.  des  Sciences,"  etc.,  fol.  Neufchatel, 
1745,  vol.  xvii.  p.  499,  given  in  personal  letter  to  Captain  Bourke  from 
Professor  Frank  Rede  Fowke,  South  Kensington  Museum,  London, 
England.) 

"  Falstaff.  Sirrah,  you  giant,  what  says  the  doctor  to  my  water  ? 

"  Page.  He  said,  sir,  the  water  itself  was  a  good  healthy  water ;  but  for  the 
party  that  owed  it,  he  might  have  more  diseases  than  he  knew  for."  —  (Shak- 
speare,  "  2  King  Henry  IV.,"  L  2.) 

Sir  Thomas  More  was  possessed  of  great  wit  and  a  fine  flow  of 
spirits,  which  even  the  approach  of  death  could  not  dispel.  Upon 
receiving  notification  that  he  had  been  condemned  to  death  by  his 
master,  King  Henry  VIII.,  "he  called  for  his  urinal,  and  having  made 
water  in  it,  he  cast  it  and  viewed  it  (as  physicians  do)  a  pretty  while ; 
at  last  he  sware  soberly  that  he  saw  nothing  in  that  man's  water  but 
that  he  might  live  if  it  pleased  the  king."  —  ("  Ajax,"  p.  61.) 

Thibetan  doctors  examine  the  urine  of  the  patient ;  then  churn 
it   and   listen   to   the   noise   made   by  the   bubbles.  —  (Mr.  W.  "W. 

Rockhill.) 

"  How  to  vex  her, 
And  make  her  cry  so  much  that  the  physician, 
If  she  fall  sick  upon  it,  shall  want  urine 
To  find  the  same  by,  and  she,  remediless, 
Die  in  her  heresy." 

("Scornful  Lady,"  v.  1,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.) 

The  people  of  Europe  did  not  restrict  their  examinations  to  the 
egestse  of  human  beings  ;  they  were  equally  careful  to  scrutinize  every 
day  the  droppings  of  the  hounds,  hawks,  and  other  animals  used  in 
the  chase.  —  (See  "  Ajax.") 

In  the  farce  of  "Master  Pathelin  "  (a.  D.  1480),  the  hero,  "in  his 
ravings  abuses  the  doctors  ...  for  not  understanding  his  urine.  .  .  . 
Charlatans  especially  exploited  in  this  field  of  medicine,  practising  it 
illegally  in  the  country  under  the  name  of  'water-jugglers  '  and  '  water- 
judges.'  Such  men  still  practise  in  Normandy  and  in  certain  northern 
provinces  of  France." —  ("  Med.  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  Minor,  p.  82.) 

18 


274  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  It  is  a  common  practice  in  these  days,  by  a  colourable  deriuation 
of  supposed  cunning  from  the  vriue,  to  foretell  casualities,  and  the 
ordinary  euents  of  life,  conceptions  of  a  woman  with  child,  and 
definite  distinctions  of  the  male  and  female  in  the  womb."  (Cotta, 
"Short  Discovery,"  London,  1G12,  p.  104.  He  goes  on  to  say  that 
even  as  a  mode  of  strict  medical  diagnosis,  urinoscopy  is  not  a  certain 
test,  the  body,  in  every  disease,  being  more  or  less  disordered,  and  this 
disorder  acting  upon  the  urine.) 

Montaigne  tells  the  story  of  a  gentleman  who  always  kept  for  seven 
or  eight  days  his  excrements,  in  different  basins,  in  order  to  talk  about 
and  show  them.  (Buckle,  "  Commonplace  Book,"  vol.  ii.  p.  357, 
quoting  from  Montaigne's  "  Essais,"  lib.  iii.  cap.  9,  p.  600.) 

Speaking  of  melancholy  people.  Burton  says,  "  Their  urine  is  most 
part  pale  and  low-colored,  'urina  pauca,  acris,  biliosa '  (Ai'ctseus),  and 
not  much  in  quantity.  .  .  Their  melancholy  excrements,  in  some  very 
much,  in  others  little."  —  ("Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  vol.  i.  p.  268.) 

OS    THE    INFLUENCE   OF   THE   EMOTIONS    UPON   THE   EGESTiE. 

Reciprocally,  the  influence  exerted  by  the  emotions  over  functional 
disturbances  has  been  made  the  subject  of  investigation  by  learned 
commentators. 

"  Aristote,  dans  les  Problemes  Physiques,  s'occupe  des  rapports  qui 
lient  les  impressions  de  I'ame  aux  fonctions  intestinales.  II  recherche 
pourquoi  une  frayeur  subite  et  violente  cause  presque  toujours  et  incon- 
tinent la  diarrhee."  (Aule-Gelee,  lib.  xix.  c.  4,  "  Bib.  Scatalog." 
p.  66.) 

Schurig  gives  numbers  of  instances  of  the  power  of  the  mind  over 
the  act  of  alvine  dejection  ;  evacuation  may  be  caused  by  perturbation 
of  mind,  by  fear,  by  insomnia,  by  thunder,  by  anger,  etc.  See  "  Chy- 
lologia,"  p.  701.  In  a  preceding  chapter  Schurig  narrates  several 
examples  of  people,  principally  women,  who  were  never  able  to  excite 
nature  to  the  act  of  evacuation  except  by  artificial  aids  addressed  to 
some  faculty  of  the  mind,  —  imagination,  laughing,  etc. 

Harington,  in  "  Ajax,"  mentions  the  case  of  the  Pope's  Legate, 
"  who  brought  the  last  jubilee  into  France ;  who,  fearing  the  pages 
who  by  custom  bustle  about  him  to  divide  his  canopie,  and  suspecting 
treason  among  them,  suddenly  laid  you  wot  of  in  his  breeches"  (p.  16). 

Dr.  Fletcher,  United  States  Army,  has  devoted  considerable  atten- 
tion to  this  subject.  He  has  kindly  placed  the  results  of  his  wide 
range  of  reading  at  the  disposal  of  the  author  of  this  volume. 


URINOSCOPY,   OR  DIAGNOSIS   BY  URINE.  275 

"  The  more  you  cry,  the  less  you  piss,"  —  a  vulgar  saying  of  consid- 
erable antiquity.  This  saying  is  founded  upon  a  correct  physiological 
observation;  an  excess  of  one  secretion  results  in  a  proportionate 
diminution  of  others. 

The  great  Greek  scholar,  Porson,  indulged  his  wit  by  transliterating 
into  Hellenic  cTiaracters  the  above  homely  saw,  and  thereby  mystified 
the  learned  pundits  who  were  called  upon  to  read  it.^ 

"  If  love  demands  weeping,  oh,  why  should  I  spare 
Those  floods  which,  of  course,  must  be  lavished  elsewhere  ? " 

"And  midst  their  bawling  and  their  hissing, 

They  cried,  to  keep  themselves  from  p g. 

Finding  their  water  would  come  out. 
They  thought  it  best,  without  dispute, 
Eather  than  wet  both  breeks  and  thighs, 
To  let  it  bubble  through  their  eyes." 

(Homer  Burlesqued,  book  xii.) 

"I  must  call,  from  between  thy  thighs, 
The  urine  back  into  thine  eyes, 
And  make  thee,  when  my  tale  thou  hearest, 
Channel  thy  cheeks  with  launt  reversed. " 

(Musarum  Delicise,  i.  p.  110.) 

"Launt"   is   an   obsolete   word,  meaning  urine.      See   Cotgrave's 

Dictionary. 

"  What  if  she  whine,  shed  tears,  and  frown  ? 
Laugh  at  her  folly,  she  '11  have  done  ; 
Never  dry  up  her  tears  with  kisses. 

The  more  she  cries,  the  less  she  p s." 

(Reflections,  Moral,  Critical,  and  Cosmical,  part  ill.  p.  23,  A.  d.  1707.) 

This  expression  is  to  be  found  also  in  old  French,  —  perhaps  is  de- 
rived from  it :  "  Pleurez  done,  et  chiez  bien  des  yeux,  vous  en  pissez 
moins." —  ("Moyen  de  Parvenir,"  a.  d.  1610.) 

"  Juletta,  how  loath  she  was  to  talk,  too,  how  she  feared  me  ! 
I  could  now  piss  mine  eyes  out  for  mere  anger. " 

("  The  Pilgiim,"  iii.  4,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.) 

The  converse  of  the  adage  is  illustrated  in  the  following  epigram  on 
a  lady  who  shed  her  water  at  seeing  the  tragedy  of  "  Cato  :  " 

^  Eloise  seems  here  to  allude  to  the  well-known  Greek  inscription  on  an  ancient 
marble,  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Medicean  gardens:  "Otfiwp  (i\p\  OAts  ewis." 
Above  it  is  an  elegant  figure  in  alto-relievo,  supposed  to  be  the  representation  of 
the  melting  Niobe,  —  Eloise,  en  (MshabilU. 


276  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

"  Whilst  maudlin  chiefs  deplore  their  Cato's  fate, 

Still,  with  dry  eyes,  the  Tory  Celia  sate  ; 

But,  though  her  pride  forbade  her  eyes  to  flow, 

The  gushing  watei's  fouud  a  vent  below. 

Tho  'n  secret,  yet  with  copious  streams  she  mourns. 

Like  twenty  river-gods,  with  all  their  urns. 

Let  others  screw  on  hypocritic  face, 

She  shows  her  grief  in  a  siucerer  place  ; 

Here  Nature  reigns,  and  passion,  void  of  art. 

For  this  road  leads  directly  to  the  heart." 

(Nick  Rowe.) 
'  But  Sandwich,  though  with  vast  surimse, 

He  saw  the  monarch's  weeping  eyes. 

Told  him  it  would  not  be  amiss,  — 

The  more  he  cryed,  the  less  he  pissed." 
(From  "  The  New  Foundling  Hospital  of  Wit,"  vol.  Iv.  p.  204.) 

"  *  Boh,'  said  to  be  the  name  of  a  Danish  general,  who  so  terrified 
his  opponent,  Foh,  that  he  caused  him  to  bewray  himself."  —  (Grose, 
Diet,  of  Buckish  Slang,  art.  "  Boh."  See,  also,  iu  same  volume,  the 
account  of  the  Puritan  preacher  who  met  with  the  same  accident  in 
his  pulpit  upon  hearing  that  the  royal  troops  were  approaching, — 
art.  "  Sh— t  Sack.") 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN  MEDICINE.  277 


XLI. 

ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN  MEDICINE. 

'T^HE  administration  of  urine  as  a  curative  opens  the  door  to  a  flood 
-*-  of  thought.  Medicine,  both  in  theoiy  and  practice,  even  among 
nations  of  the  highest  development  and  refinement,  has  not,  until 
within  the  present  century,  cleared  its  skirts  of  the  superstitious  hand- 
prints of  the  dark  ages.  With  tribes  of  a  lower  degree  of  culture  it 
is  still  subordinate  to  the  incantations  and  exorcisms  of  the  '*  medicine 
man."  It  might  not  be  going  a  step  too  far  to  assert  that  the  science 
of  therapeutics,  pure  and  simple,  has  not  yet  taken  form  among  sav- 
ages ;  but  to  shorten  discussion  and  avoid  controversy,  it  will  be  as- 
sumed here  that  such  a  science  does  exist,  but  in  an  extremely  rude 
and  embryotic  state ;  and  to  this  can  be  referred  all  examples  of  the 
introduction  of  urine  or  ordure  in  the  materia  medica,  where  the  aid 
of  the  "  medicine  man "  does  not  seem  to  have  been  invoked,  as  in 
the  method  employed  for  the  eradication  of  dandruff  by  Mexicans, 
Eskimo,  and  others,  the  Celtiberian  dentifrice,  etc.^ 

When  the  compilation  and  correlation  of  data  bearing  upon  this  sub- 
ject was  first  begun,  the  exceeding  importance  of  the  pharmaceutical 
division  was  manifest.  In  the  opinion  of  the  author,  this  part  of  the 
investigation  should  have  been  assumed  by  a  student  possessed  of  a  pre- 
liminary training  in  medicine,  and  it  was  not  until  urged  on  by  friendly 
correspondents  that  he  concluded,  upon  resuming  his  labors,  to  aug- 
ment these  references  by  citations  from  the  more  prominent  writers 
of  ancient  and  modern  times,  who  have  demonstrated  the  importance 
of  the  subject  by  devoting  to  its  consideration  not  passing  sentences 
and  scant  allusions,  but  pregnant  chapters  and  bulky  volumes. 

1  "We  have  in  the  folk-medicine,  which  still  exists,  the  unwiitten  record  of 
the  beginning  of  the  practice  of  medicine  and  surgery.  .  .  .  The  early  history  of 
medical  science,  as  of  all  other  developments  of  culture,  can  be  studied  more  nar- 
rowly and  more  accurately  in  the  folk-lore  of  this  and  other  countries  than  some 
students  of  modern  science  and  exact  modem  records  may  think  possible."  — 
("Folk-Medicine,"  "William  George  Black,  London,  1883,  pp.  2,  3.J 


278  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

By  great  good  fortune  he  was  enabled  co  make  the  fullest  use  of 
the  library  of  the  Army  Medical  Museum,  which,  under  the  super- 
vision of  Surgeon  John  S.  Billings,  United  States  Army,  has  become 
the  finest  special  bibliotheque  in  the  world. 

From  Surgeon  Billings,  and  his  able  assistants,  Doctors  Fletcher 
and  Wise,  were  received,  besides  the  courteous  attentions  which  every 
student  has  the  right  to  expect,  an  intelligent  and  sympathetic  co- 
operation which  cannot  be  too  gratefully  acknowledged. 

In  such  an  embarrassment  of  riches  as  now  confronted  him,  he 
exercised  the  right  of  drawing  only  iipon  the  authorities  which  would 
appeal  to  all  critics  as  most  entitled  to  prominence  ;  to  have  followed 
any  other  course,  and  to  have  attempted  to  engraft  all  available  mate- 
rial, would  have  swollen  this  chapter  to  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands 
of  pages. 

"  Sprengel  pense  que  Asclepiade,  sumomme  Pharmacion,  est  le  pre- 
mier qui  ait  conseille  les  excrements  humains;  mais  11  est  probable 
qu'il  ne  fit  qu'eriger  en  preceptes  ecrits  un  usage  deja  consacre  en 
Orient,  particulierement  en  Egypte."  —  ("  Bib.  Scat.,"  pp.  29,  30.) 

The  earliest  writer  whose  works  have  been  consulted  was  Hip- 
pocrates, termed  the  "  Father  of  Medicine,"  born  460  b.  c.  "  He  was  a 
member  of  the  family  of  the  AsclepiadEe,  .  .  .  and  a  descendant  of  both 
Escnlapius  and  Hercules.  He  was  born  of  a  family  of  priest-pliysicians, 
and  was  the  first  to  throw  superstition  aside,  and  to  base  the  practice 
of  medicine  on  the  principles  of  inductive  philosophy."  —  (  "  Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica." 

Galen  wrote  a  series  of  commentaries  upon  his  writings.  Medical 
commentators  are  not  in  accord  as  to  how  many  of  the  works  at- 
tributed to  him  are  genuine ;  but  the  editions  of  the  accepted  and  the 
suspected  to  be  spurious  are  almost  innumerable,  and  pi-inted  in  every 
language  of  Europe. 

In  the  edition  by  Francis  Adams  (Sydenham  Society,  London,  1849), 
there  is  no  mention  of  the  use  of  human  or  animal  excreta  in  pharmacy. 
But  in  another  edition  can  be  read  that  ass's  dung  was  given  to  re- 
strain excessive  catamenial  flow. —  (Kuhn's  edition,  Leipsig,  1829, 
vol.  i.  p.  481.) 

EtmuUer  says  that  Hippocrates  prescribed  hawk-dung  to  aid  in  the 
expulsion  of  the  fostns  and  as  a  remedy  for  sterility  (vol.  ii.  p.  285). 
The  general  use  of  excrementitious  material  in  the  medical  practice  of 
Hippocrates'  own  day  must  be  accepted  from  evidence  deduced  from 
outside  sources.    For  example,  Aristophanes,  who  was  his  contemporary 


ORDUEE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  279 

(born  446  B.  c,  Encyc.  Britan.),  stigmatized  all  the  medical  fraternity 
as  "  excrement-eaters ; "  and  Xeuocrates,  another  practitioner  of  the 
same  date,  of  whose  writings,  however,  nothing  has  come  down  to  us 
beyond  the  meagre  outline  to  be  found  in  the  commentaries  of  Galen, 
made  constant  employment  not  only  of  human  and  animal  excreta,  but 
of  all  the  secretions  and  excretions  as  well.  According  to  Appleton'a 
Encyclopsedia,  Xenocrates  was  born  396  b.  c. 

Schnrig  relates  of  Aristophanes  that  he  called  doctors  "  fecivores 
.  .  .  quod  quidem  adulatores  fuerint  quin  excrementa  Magnoruni  de- 
gustare  voluerint."  He  also  says :  "  Quare  de  illo  non  inepte  dixit 
quidam,  eura  dignum  fuisse  Xenocrates  Medico,  qui  excrementis  variis 
animaliura  omnes  morbos  curare  solitus  erat." — ("  Chylologia," 
p.  82.) 

"  Xenocrates,  who  flourished  sixty  years  before  Galen,  had  also  a 
good  list  of  nasty  prescriptions,  for  which  the  veil  of  a  dead  language 
is  required."  (Saxon  Leechdoms,"  lib.  i.  p.  xviii.)  These  included 
the  urine  of  women  and  their  cataraenia. 

Aristophanes  called  the  physicians  of  his  time  o-KaTo<^ayovs,  or  excre- 
ment-eaters. "Ce  qui  etait  plus  malin  que  vrai,  car  les  comperes  en 
faisaient  manger  k  leurs  clients  plus  qu'ils  n'en  mangeaient  eux-memes." 
—  ("  Bibliotheca  Scatalogica.") 

Human  excrements,  under  the  name  of  "botryon,"  were  used  by 
./Eschines  of  Athens,  for  the  cure  of  quinsy.  (Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  c.  10.) 
iEschines  lived  between  389-317  B.C. 

"Serapion  of  Alexandria  flourished  B.  c.  278,  forty  years  after  the 
date  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  was  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  empiric 
school.  .  .  .  He  in  epilepsy  prescribed  .  .  .  dung  of  crocodiles."  — 
("Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  xiv.) 

The  next  in  chronological  order  would  be  Pliny,  from  whom  can  be 
extracted  a  veritable  mine  of  information  on  this  point ;  then  Diosco- 
rides,  who  lived  in  the  latter  years  of  the  first  and  the  opening  ones  of 
the  second  centuries  of  the  Christian  era ;  and  then  Galen,  born  at 
Pergamos,  in  Mysia,  130  a.d.,  "the  most  celebrated  of  ancient  medi- 
cal writers,"  and  "appointed  by  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  to  the 
position  of  medical  guardian  of  his  son,  the  young  prince,  and  later  on 
Emperor,  Commodus."  —  (Encyc.  Brit.) 

The  classical  authorities  will  conclude  with  Sextus  Placitus,  from 
whose  works  much  of  importance  has  been  extracted. 

Each  author  will  be  allowed  to  speak  in  his  own  words,  and  the 
necessary  deductions  will  be  made  afterwards ;  only  the  remarks  bear- 


280  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

ing  upon  love-philters  and  child-birth  have  been  assigned  to  the  chap- 
ters devoted  to  the  treatment  of  those  subjects,  and  this  merely  to 
reduce  the  chances  of  repetition. 

The  following  remedies  are  taken  from  Pliny,  from  the  books  and 
chapters  given  opposite  each  case  :  — 

"  A  plant  that  has  been  grown  upon  a  dung-heap  in  a  field  is  a  very 
efficacious  remedy,  taken  in  water,  for  quinsy."  —  (Lib.  xxiv.  c.  110.) 

"A  plant  upon  which  a  dog  has  watered,  torn  np  by  the  roots,  and 
not  touched  with  iron,  is  a  very  speedy  cure  for  sprains."  —  (Idem, 
c.  111.) 

"  Camel's  dung,  reduced  into  ashes,  and  incorporat  with  oile,  doth 
curie  and  frizzle  the  hair  of  the  head,  and  taken  in  drinke,  as  much  as 
a  man  may  comprehend  with  three  fingers,  cureth  the  dyseuterie ;  so 
doth  it  also  the  falling  sickness.  Camel's  piss,  they  say,  is  passing 
good  for  Fullers  to  scour  their  cloth  withall ;  and  the  same  healeth 
any  running  sores  which  be  bathed  therein.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
barbarous  nations  keep  this  stale  of  theirs  until  it  be  five  yeai-s  old, 
and  then  a  draught  thereof  to  the  quantity  of  one  hermiue  is  a  good 
laxative  potion."  —  (Lib.  xxviii.  c.  8.) 

Goat's  dung  good  for  sore  eyes.  —  (Idem,  c.  11.) 

For  "  Skals  in  the  Head  "  the  Romans  used  <'  Bui's  Urine."  Stale 
chamber-lye  was  also  considered  good.  "  The  gall  of  buck  goats,  tem- 
pered with  Bui's  stale,  killeth  lice."  Dog-dung  and  goat-dung  also 
were  prescribed.  —  (Idem,  c.  11.) 

Wolfs  dung  is  mentioned  as  good  for  cataract.  —  (Idem,  c.  11.) 

Hen's  dung,  the  white  part,  prescribed  for  the  cure  of  poisonous 
mushrooms  ;  also  to  cure  flatulence  (but  in  any  living  creature  it  causes 
flatulence,  says  Pliny).  Ashes  of  horse-dung  fresh  made  and  burned, 
the  urine  of  a  wild  boar,  the  green  dung  of  an  ass,  are  among  the 
medicaments  mentioned  for  ear-ache  (idem,  c.  11)  ;  also  "  Urine  of  a 
Bui  or  a  Goat,  or  stale  chamber  lye  made  hotte  ;  "  also  "  Calfe's  Pisse, 
Calfe's  dung."  Goat  and  horse  dung  were  employed  to  drive  away 
snakes.  —  (Idem,  c.  110.) 

Human  urine  used  in  curing  the  bites  of  mad  dogs.  —  (Idem, 
c.   18.) 

Pliny  notices  that  the  Greeks  used  the  scrapings  of  the  bodies  of 
athletes  for  emmenagogues,  for  uterine  troubles,  for  sprains,  muscular 
rheumatism,  etc.  "  We  find  authors  of  the  very  highest  repute  pro- 
claiming aloud  that  the  seminal  fluid  is  a  sovereign  remedy  for  the 
sting  of  the  scorpion.     In  the  case,  too,  of  a  woman  afflicted  with  ster- 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN  MEDICINE.  281 

ility  they  recommend  the  application  of  a  pessary  made  of  the  fresh 
excrement  voided  by  an  infant  at  the  moment  of  its  birth.  .  .  .  They 
have  even  gone  so  far,  too,  as  to  scrape  the  very  filth  from  oflf  the 
walls  of  the  gymnasia,  and  to  assert  that  this  is  possessed  of  certain 
calorific  properties.  .  .  .  The  ux'ine  has  been  the  subject  not  only  of 
numerous  theories  with  authors,  but  of  various  religious  observances 
as  well,  its  properties  being  classified  under  several  distinctive  heads ; 
thus,  for  instance,  the  urine  of  eunuchs,  they  say,  is  highly  beneficial  as 
a  promoter  of  fruitfulness  in  females."  He  mentions  the  urine  of  children 
as  a  sovereign  remedy  for  the  poisonous  secretion  of  the  asp,  which  "  spits 
its  venom  into  the  eyes  of  human  beings."  Human  urine  was  used  in 
eye  troubles,  "  albugo,  films,  and  marks  upon  the  eyes,  white  specks 
upon  the  pupils,  and  maladies  of  the  eyelids."  It  was  also  used  in  the 
cure  of  burns,  suppuration  of  the  ears,  as  an  emmenagogue,  for  sun-burn, 
and  for  taking  out  ink-spots.  "  Male  urine  cured  Gout."  Urine  cured 
"  eruptions  on  the  bodies  of  infants,  corrosive  sores,  running  ulcers, 
chaps  upon  the  body,  stings  inflicted  by  serpents,  ulcers  of  the  head, 
and  cancerous  sores  of  the  generative  organs.  .  .  .  Every  person's 
urine  is  the  best  for  his  own  case."  —  (Lib.  xxviii.  c.  18.) 

The  ashes  of  camel's  dung  were  administered  internally  in  epilepsy, 
and  also  for  dysentery.  —  (Idem,  c.  27.) 

Camel's  urine  applied  to  running  sores ;  barbarous  nations  kept  it 
for  five  years,  and  then  used  it  as  a  purgative.  — (Idem.) 

The  dung  of  the  hippopotamus  was  used  in  fumigations,  "  for  the 
cure  of  a  cold  ague."  —  (Idem,  c.  31.) 

The  urine  of  the  once  (ounce)  "  helpeth  the  strangury ; "  it  was  also 
taken  internally  for  sore  throat.  — (Idem.) 

Hyena-urine  "  is  said  to  be  useful  in  diseases  of  long  standing  " 
(idem,  c.  27) ;  also  given  in  drink  for  dysentery  ;  also  applied  in  lini- 
ments. —  (Idem.) 

Crocodile-dung  used  for  eye  troubles  and  for  epilepsy  ;  used  in  form 
of  a  pessary,  as  an  emmenagogue.  —  (Lib.  xxviii.  c.  29.) 

Lynx-urine  for  strangury  and  pains  in  the  chest.  —  (Idem,  c.  32.) 

Goat-urine  an  antidote  for  bites  of  serpents.  —  (Idem,  c.  42.) 

Goat-dung  an  antidote  for  bites  of  serpents.  —  (Idem.) 

Horse-dung,  taken  from  a  horse  on  pasture,  an  antidote  for  the  bites 
of  serpents.  —  (Idem.) 

Goat-dung  for  scorpion  bites.  —  (Idem.) 

Calves'  dung  for  scorpion  bites.  —  (Llem.) 

She-goat's  dung,  bite  of  mad  dog.  —  (Idem.) 


282  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Badger-dung,  cuckoo-dung,  swallow-dung,  taken  internally,  bite  of 
mad  dog.  —  (Idem.) 

Bull-dung,  dandruff,  applied  locally.  —  (Idem,  c.  46.) 

Goat's  dung,  dandruff.  —  (Idem.) 

Wolf-dung  for  cataract.  —  (Idem,  c.  47.) 

She-goat's  dung  for  ophthalmia  and  eye-troubles  generally ;  inter- 
nally. —  (Idem.) 

Wild-boar  urine,  ear-troubles.  — (Idem,  c.  48.) 

Ass-dung,  deafness.  —  (Idem.) 

Horse-dung,  deafness ;  also  used  in  liniments.  —  (Idem.) 

Bull's  urine,  deafness.  —  (Idem.) 

She-goat's  urine,  deafness.  — (Idem.) 

Calf-dung,  deafness.  —  (Idem.) 

Calf-urine,  deafness.  —  (Idem.) 

Asses'  urine,  internally,  in  elephantiasis.  —  (Lib.  xxviii.  c.  30.) 

Cat-dung,  rubbed  on  the  neck,  to  remove  bones  from  the  throat.  — 
(Idem,  c.  51.) 

Warm  urine,  cow-dung,  and  goat-dung  applied  to  scrofulous  sores. 
—  (Idem.) 

Goat  urine  and  dung  for  cricks  In  neck.  —  (Idem,  c.  52.) 

Hare-dung,  internally,  for  cough.  —  (Idem,  c.  53.) 

Boar's  dung,  swine's  dung,  internally,  pains  in  loins.  —  (Idem, 
c.  56.) 

Cow-dung,  externally,  sciatica.  —  (Idem,  c.  56.) 

Asses'  dung,  internally,  affections  of  spleen. — (Idem,  c.  57.) 

Horse-dung,  internally,  bowel  complaints.  —  (Idem,  c.  58.) 

Boar's  or  swine's  dung,  internally,  dysentery.  —  (Idem,  c.  59.) 

Hare,  ass,  horse,  or  goat  dung,  internally,  dysentery.  —  (Idem.) 

Calf-dung,  internally,  flatulence. —  (Idem.) 

Hare-dung,  internally,  hernia. —  (Idem.) 

Ass-dung,  internally,  diseases  of  colon.  — (Idem.) 

Swine-dung,  internally,  diseases  of  colon.  —  (Idem.) 

Wild-boar's  urine,  internally,  diseases  of  bladder ;  also  used  internally 
in  treatment  of  urinary  calculi.  —  (Idem,  c.  60.) 

Goat-dung,  internally,  urinary  calculi.  —  (Idem.) 

Goat-dung,  extenially,  ulcers  upon  the  generative  organs.  —  (Idem.) 

Wild-asses'  urine,  diseases  of  the  genitalia,  externallj'.  —  (Idem, 
c.  61.) 

Goat-urine,  diseases  of  the  genitalia,  externally.  —  (Idem.) 


ORDURE  AND  URINE  IN  MEDICINE.  283 

Goat-dung,  diseases  of  the  genitalia,  externally ;  also,  internally,  for 
gout.  —  (Idem.) 

Cow-dung,  internally,  gout.  —  (Idem.) 
Calf-dung,  internally,  gout.  —  (Idem.) 
Goat-dung,  sciatica,  externally.  —  (Idem.) 

Wild-boar's  dung,  swine's  dung,  chaps,  corns,  callosities.  —  (Idem, 
c.  62.) 

Asses'  urine,  applied  to  feet  galled  by  travel.  —  (Idem.) 
Calf-dung,  burnt,  applied  to  varicose  veins.  —  (Idem.) 
Wild-boar's  urine,  drunk,  for  epilepsy.  —  (Idem,  c.  63.) 
Horse's  urine,  drunk,  for  epilepsy  ;  also  for  delirium.  —  (Idem.) 
Asses'  urine,  externally,  in  paralysis.  —  (Idem.) 
Dung  of  a  new-born  ass,  internally,  yellow  jaundice.  —  (Idem,  c.  64.) 
Dung  of  a  colt,  internally,  yellow  jaundice.  —  (Idem.) 
Goat-dung,  externally,  for  broken  bones.  —  (Idem,  c.  65.) 
Cow-dung,  burnt,  diluted  with  boys'  urine,  was  rubbed  on  the  toes 
of  the  patient  in  quartan  fevers.  —  (Idem,  c.  66.) 

Calf-dung,  internally,  in  melancholia.  — (Idem,  c.  67.) 
Swine's  dung,  internally,  consumption.  —  (Idem.) 
Wild-boar's  urine,  internally,  dropsy.  —  (Idem,  c.  68.) 
Cow-iarine,  internally,  dropsy.  —  (Idem.) 
Calf-urine,  internally,  dropsy.  —  (Idem.) 
Bull-urine,  internally,  dropsy.^ —  (Idem.) 

Calf-dung,  cow-dung,  swine's  dung,  asses'  dung,  all  applied  exter- 
nally for  the  cure  of  erysipelas  and  purulent  eruptions.  —  (Idem, 
0.  69.) 

Wild-boar's  dung,  swine's  dung,  calf-dung,  goat-dung,  cow-dung,  ex- 
ternally, for  sprains,  indurations,  and  boils.  —  (Idem,  c.  70.) 

Wild-boar's  dung,  swine's  dung,  hare-dung,  goat-dung,  externally, 
burns  of  all  kinds.  —  (Idem,  c.  71.) 

Goat-dung,  wild-boar's  dung,  externally,  contusions,  bruises,  etc.  — 
(Idem,  c.  72.) 

The  Emperor  Nero,  being  of  scrofulous  tendency,  drank  the  ashes  of 
wild-boar  dung  in  water,  to  refresh  himself.  —  (Idem.) 

Asses'  dung,  burnt,  externally,  hemorrhages.  —  (Idem,  c.  73.) 
Calf  s  dung,  burnt,  externally,  hemorrhages.  —  (Idem.) 
Swine's  dung,  externally,  to  ulcers.  — (Idem,  c.  74.) 
Goat-dung,  externally,  to  ulcers.  —  (Idem.) 
Swine's  dung,  fresh,  externally,  to  wounds.  —  (Idem.) 

*  Bull-urine  was  given  to  men,  cow-urine  to  women. 


28-i  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Horse's  dung,  cow-dung,  fresh,  externally,  to  wounds.  — (Idem.) 

Asses'  dung,  externally,  itch.  —  (Idem,  c.  75.) 

Cow-dung,  externally,  itch.  —  (Idem.) 

Cow-dung,  she-goat's  dung,  applied  externally  to  extract  thorns.  — 
(Llem,  c.  76.) 

Wild-boar's  dung,  or  swine's  dung,  internally,  in  inflammation  of 
the  uterus.  —  (Idem,  c.  77.) 

Asses'  dung,  in  plaster  or  powder,  or  as  a  fumigation,  for  all  uterine 
troubles.  —  (Idem.) 

Ox-dung  as  a  fumigation,  for  falling  of  the  womb.  —  (Idem,  lib. 
xxviii.  c.  77.) 

Cat's  dung,  as  a  pessary,  for  uterine  ulcerations.  —  (Idem.) 

"She-goat's  urine,  taken  internally,  and  the  dung  applied  topically, 
will  arrest  uteriue  discharges,  however  much  in  excess." —  (Idem.) 

Swine's  dung,  as  an  injection,  used  to  cure  beasts  of  burden  of  void- 
ing blood. —  (Idem,  c.  81.) 

"  The  oxen  in  the  Isle  of  Cyprus  cure  themselves  of  gripings  in  the 
abdomen,  it  is  said,  by  swallowing  human  excrement."  —  (Idem.) 

Dung  of  mice  and  the  ashes  of  sheep-dung  prescribed  for  dandruff". 
The  dung  of  a  peacock  stated  to  be  of  great  value  in  medicine,  but  for 
■what  not  stated.  —  (Idem,  c.  6.) 

Sheep-dung,  externally,  in  serpent  bites.  —  (Idem,  c.  15.) 

"  A  most  efficient  remedy  for  wounds  inflicted  by  the  asp,"  was  for 
"the  person  stung  to  drink  his  own  urine."  —  (Idem,  c.  18.) 

"  For  the  bite  of  all  spiders  .  .  .  sheep's-dung,  applied  in  vinegar." 
—  (Idem,  c.  27.) 

Poultry-dung,  good  as  an  application  for  the  sting  of  the  scorpion.  — 
(Idem,  c.  29.) 

"  The  dung  of  poultry,  provided  it  is  of  a  red  color,  is  very  useful, 
applied  with  vinegar."     Also  for  bite  of  a  mad  dog.  —  (Idem,  c.  32.) 

The  urine  of  a  mad  dog  was  believed  to  be  injurious  to  those  people 
who  trod  upon  it,  especially  those  persons  with  scrofulous  sores. — 
(Idem.) 

"  The  proper  remedy  in  such  cases  is  to  apply  horse-dung."  — 
(Idem.) 

"  Whoever  makes  water  where  a  dog  has  previously  watered,  will  be 
susceptible  of  numbness  in  the  loins."  —  (Idem,  c.  32.) 

"  Poultry-dimg,  but  the  white  part  only,  ...  is  an  excellent  anti- 
dote to  the  poison  of  fungi  and  mushrooms ;  it  is  a  cure  also  for 
flatulence  and  suffocations,  —  a  thing  the  more  to  be  wondered  at,  see- 


ORDURE   AND   URINE  IN  MEDICINE.  285 

ing  that  if  any  living  creature  only  tastes  this  dung,  it  is  immediately 
attacked  with  griping  pains  and  flatulency."  —  (Idem,  c.  33.) 

"The  dung  of  wood  pigeons  ...  an  antidote  to  quiclisilver."  — 
(Idem.) 

Sheep-dung,  mouse-dung,  poultry-dung,  applied  externally  in  the 
treatment  of  baldness  or  "alopa'cia,"  so  called  from  "alopex,"a  fox, 
"an  animal  very  subject  to  the  loss  of  its  hair."  — (Idem,  c.  34.) 

Mouse-dung,  externally,  "affections  of  the  eyelids."  —  (Idem,  c.  37.) 

Poultry-dung  as  a  liniment  for  short-sighted  persons.  —  (Idem, 
c.  38.) 

"  Peacocks  swallow  their  dung,  it  is  said,  as  though  they  envied  man 
the  various  uses  of  it."  —  (Idem.) 

Pigeon's  dung,  externally,  fistula.  —  (Idem.) 

Hawk-dung,  turtle-dove  dung,  externally,  "albugo."  —  (Idem.) 

Pigeon's  dung,  extei'nally,  imposthumes  of  the  parotid  gland. — 
(Lib.  29,  39.) 

Mouse-dung,  raven's  dung,  sparrow-dung.  The  ashes  of  these  were 
plugged  into  carious  teeth,  and  used  externally  for  all  tooth  troubles. 
—  (Lib.  30,  c.  8.) 

Mouse-dung,  good  to  impart  sweetness  to  sour  breath  (idem,  c.  9) ; 
also  prescribed  for  the  stone.  —  (Idem,  c.  8.) 

"The  dung  of  lambs  before  they  have  begun  to  graze  .  .  .  alle- 
viated .  .  .  affections  of  the  uvula  and  pains  in  the  fauces.  It  should 
be  dried  in  the  shade."  —  (Idem,  c.  11.) 

Pigeon's  dung  used  as  a  gargle  for  sore  throat  (idem)  ;  used  inter- 
nally for  quinsy  (idem,  c.  12)  ;  internally  for  dysentery  (idem,  c.  19)  ; 
and  externally  for  the  cure  of  "iliac  passion," —  (Idem,  c.  20.) 

Mouse-dung,  rubbed  on  the  abdomen,  was  considered  to  be  a  cure 
for  urinary  calculi.  —  (Idem,  c.  21.) 

The  flesh  of  a  hedge-hog,  killed  before  it  had  time  to  discharge  its 
urine  upon  its  body,  was  a  cure  for  strangury ;  but,  it  would  cause 
strangury  if  able  to  urinate  upon  itself  before  death. —  (Idem,  c.  21.) 

Dove-dung,  internally,  for  urinary  calculi.  —  (Idem.) 

Swallow-dung,  as  a  suppository  and  purgative.  —  (Idem.) 

Dog-dung,  externally,  fissure  in  ano. —  (Idem,  c.  22.) 

Mouse-dung.  —  (Idem.) 

Pigeon's  dung,  externally,  in  fissure  in  ano.  —  (Idem.) 

Mouse-dung  and  pigeon's-dung,  externally,  for  tumors.  —  (Idem.) 

Sheep  and  poultry  dung,  externally,  in  gout.  —  (Idem.) 

Ring-dove-dung,  liniment  for  pains  in  the  joints.  —  (Idem,  c.  23.) 


286  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

The  ashes  of  pigeon's  or  of  poultry  dung,  externally,  for  excoriations 
of  the  feet.— (Idem,  c.  25.) 

!Mule-uriiie,  sheep  and  poultry  dung,  externally,  for  corns  on  feet.  — 
(Idem.) 

Dog-urine,  sheep  and  poultry  dung,  externally,  for  warts  of  all  kinds. 

—  (Idem.) 

Swallow-dung,  internally,  cure  of  fevers.  —  (Idem,  c.  30.) 

Pigeon's,  poultry,  and  sheep  dung,  externally,  boils  and  carbuncles. 

—  (Idem,  caps.  33,  34.) 

Sheep-dung,  externally,  burns.  —  (Idem,  c.  35.) 
Pigeon's  dung,  snufF  made  of  for  brain  hemorrhage.  —  (Idem,  c.  38.) 
Hoise-dung,  externally,  hemorrhages  from  wounds.  —  (Idem.) 
Sheep-dung,  ashes  of,  externally,  carcinoma. —  (Idem,  c.  39.) 
Sheep-dung,  externally,  wounds  and  fistulas.  —  (Idem.) 
Mouse-dung,  cautery. —  (Idem.) 
Weasel's  dung,  ashes  of,  cautery.  —  (Idem.) 
Pigeou's-dung,  ashes  of,  cautery.  —  (Idem.) 

Poultry-dung  and  pigeon's  dung,  externally,  old  cicatrices.  —  (Idem, 
c.  40.) 

Sheep's  dung,  externally,  female  complaints. —  (Idem,  c.  43.) 
Mouse-dung,  externally,  swelled  breasts.  —  (Idem.) 

EXTRACTS    FROM    THE   WRITINGS    OF    DIOSCORIDES. 

Dioscorides  devotes  a  chapter  to  the  medicinal  values  of  different 
ordures ;  a  condensation  only  of  the  translation  need  be  given,  since 
the  original  is  inserted. 

The  fresh  dung  of  domestic  cattle  was  considered  good  for  inflamed 
wounds ;  for  pains  at  extremity  of  spine  ;  and,  when  made  into  a  plas- 
ter with  oil,  it  dissolved  glandular  and  scrofulous  swellings  and  tumors. 
The  dung  of  bulls  was  a  remedy  for  falling  of  the  womb ;  when  drunk 
with  wine,  was  frequently  given  as  a  remedy  in  epilepsy ;  used  also  in 
the  cure  of  suppressed  menstruation  and  to  expel  the  fcetus  in  retarded 
delivery;  administered  in  menstrual  hemorrhages;  for  the  alleviation 
of  gout  in  the  feet,  serpent  bites,  erysipelas,  etc.  Goat  and  sheep 
dung  was  used  for  the  same  purposes. 

Dried  goat-dung,  drunk  in  wine,  checked  hemorrhages,  as  did  that 
of  asses  and  horses.  The  dung  of  grass-fed  kine  taken  in  wine  for 
scorpion  bites. 

Dove  and  poultry  dung  given  to  break  up  the  old  sores  and  scrofu- 
lous swellings. 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN  MEDICINE.  287 

Hen-dung  believed  to  be  almost  a  specific  against  the  effects  of 
poisonous  mushrooms ;  it  was  to  be  drunk  in  wine. 

Stork-dung  was  another  remedy  for  epilepsy ;  it  was  also  to  be  drunk 
in  wine. 

Vulture-dung  expelled  the  foetus ;  mouse-dung  expelled  calculi. 

Hen-dung,  especially  that  laid  during  the  dog-days,  was  good  for 
dysentery. 

Fresh  human  ordure  was  applied  to  inflamed  wounds,  and  as  a  plas- 
ter in  angina ;  dog-dung  was  also  used  in  such  cases. 

Crocodile-excrement  was  in  high  repute  as  a  cosmetic.  (See  "  Cos- 
metics.") Purchasers  were  warned  that  it  was  frequently  adulterated 
with  the  excrement  of  starlings  fed  on  rice. 

The  urine  of  the  patient  himself  should  be  drunk  in  cases  of  serpent 
bites,  poisons  from  drugs,  bites  of  scorpions,  mad  dogs,  etc.  For  old 
ulcers,  cicatrices,  "  lepras,"  an  excellent  application  ;  also  for  ulcerations 
in  the  genitalia,  sores  in  the  ears,  etc. 

The  urine  of  an  undefiled  boy  was  highly  commended  for  various 
purposes,  especially  when  triturated  with  honey  in  a  brass  mortar. 

The  "  sediment  of  urine  "  (see  "  Maugeurs  de  Blanc  ")  was  regarded 
as  of  great  value  in  erysipelas.  Bull's  urine  was  given  for  the  cure  of 
ulcerated  ears. 

Goat  urine  expelled  stone  from  the  bladder ;  likewise,  beneficial  in 
dropsy,  if  drunk  daily. 

Asses'  urine  cured  mania. 

"  Dioscoride,  lib.  ii.  cap.  73,  et  ses  coramentateurs,  P.  Andr.  Mathicle, 
fol.  238,  et  J.  Cornarius,  comment,  cap.  69,  fol.  m.  134,  permettent 
I'usage  des  stercoraria  pour  les  paysans,  et  quand  on  n'a  rien  de  mieux 
sous  la  main,  mais  ils  I'interdisent  pour  les  habitants  des  villes  et  les 
personnages  honorati  alicujus  estimationis.  Outre  sou  grand  ouvrage, 
de  maitre  medical  on  attribue  generalement  a  Dioscoride  un  traits 
design^  sous  le  titre  de  Euporista,  ou  des  remedes  fs^ciles  a  procurer." 
(This  was  published  at  Strasbourg  and  again  at  Frankfort  in  1565  and 
1598,  respectively,  from  the  original  Greek.)  "  Dans  I'Euporista, 
Dioscoride  cherche  a  etablir  que  les  remedes  indigenes  valent  souvent 
mieux  que  ceux  qu'on  fait  veuir  a  grands  frais  des  pays  ^loignes,  et,  k 
ce  titre,  il  mentionne  le  stercus  comme  offraut  de  curieuses  ressources." 
—  ("  Bib.  Scatalogica,"  p.  74.) 

"  Stercus  bovis  armentalis  recens  impositum,  inflaramationem  ex 
vulneribus  lenit ;  foliis  autem  involutum  in  cineris  calentis  calefit, 
atque  ita  imponuntur.     Simili  modo  fotu  applicitum  coxendicis  cruci- 


288  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

atus  mitigat.  Ex  aceto  vero  cataplasmatis  vice  impositum  duritias, 
strumas  et  glaudarum  tumores  discutit.  Speciatim  vero  bovis  mas- 
culi  fituus  prolapsum  uterum  suffitu  restituit,  acceusi  quoque  nidore 
culices  abiguntur.  Cuprarum  prsesertim  in  montibus  degentium, 
stercus  ex  vino  bibitum  regium  morbum  emendat,  cum  aromatibus 
vero  potum  menses  ciet  et  foetus  ejiciet. 

"  Siccum,  tritumque  et  cum  turre  in  vellerse  appositum,  fluxura  muli- 
ebrem  cohibet  aliasque  sanguinis  eruptiones  ex  aceto  compescit,  Ustuin 
ac  cum  aceto  aut  oxymelite  illitum  calvitiei  medetur.  Cum  axungia 
vero  cataplasmata  adhibitum  podagracis  opitulatur.  Decoctum  in 
aceto,  aut  vino  imponitur  ad  serpentise  morsum,  herpetas,  erysipelata, 
parotides.  Quiu  et  ischiadicis  ustis  eorum  ope  administratur  utiliter 
hunc  in  modum;  in  eo  cavo,  quod  est  inter  poUicera  et  indicem  qua 
parte  pollex  committitur,  lan9  oleo  imbuta  prius  substernitur,  ac  dein 
siugulatim  imponuntur  fimi  caprini  fei'ventes  pilulos,  donee  sensus  per 
brachium  ad  coxendicem  perveniat  doloremque  mitiget  atque  adustis 
talis  arabica  appellatur. 

"  At  vero  stercus  ovillum  ex  aceto  impositum  sanat  epinyctidas,  cla- 
vos,  verrucas,  quse  thymi  vocantur,  et  quae  pensiles  sunt  .  .  .  Apri- 
num  autem  aridum  in  aqua  aut  vino  potum,  sanguinis  rejectionem 
sistit  ac  diuturnum  sedat  lateris  dolorem.  Sed  ad  rapta  convulsaque, 
ex  aceto  bibitur ;  luxatis  vero  exceptum  curato  rosaceo  medetur. 
Porro  tam  asinorum  quam  equorum  firaum,  sive  crudum  sive  crema- 
tum,  addito  aceto,  sanguinis  eruptiones  cobibet.  Armentinorum  vero, 
qui  herba  pascuntur,  siccum  stercus  vino  imbutum  et  bibitum  a  scor- 
pione  ictis  magnopere  auxiliatur. 

"  Columbinum  quoniam  vehementer  calefacit  ac  urit,  farinse  crudse 
admiscetur,  et  ex  aceto  quidem  strumas  discutit.  Carbunculos  vero 
emarginat  cum  melle,  lini  semince,  et  oleo  tritum,  nee  non  ambustis 
quoque  medetur.  Gallinaceum  eadem,  sed  malignis,  praestat.  Speci- 
atim tamen  contra  letales  fongos  et  colicos  dolores  confert,  si  ex  aceto 
aut  vino  bibatur.  Ciconae  vero  fimium  ex  aqua  potum  comitialibus 
prodesse  creditur.  Vulturis  suffumigatum  foetum  excutere  traditur. 
Murium  cum  aceto  tritum  illitumque  calvitiei  medetur,  cum  turre 
vero  et  mulso  potum  calculos  expellit.  Sed  et  subditse  infantibus 
muscerdse  alvum  ad  dejectionem  lacessunt.  Caninum  stercus,  quod 
per  caniculse  ardores  exceptum  fuerit,  aridum  cum  vino  aut  aqua  po- 
tum, alvum  cohibet.  Ad  humanum  recens  cataplasmatis  vice  imposi- 
tum vulnera  ab  inflamraatione  vindicat,  simul  vero  glutinat.  Siccum 
autem  cum  melle  perunctum  anginosos  auxiliari  traditur. 


ORDURE   AND   URIXE   IN   MEDICINE.  239 

"  Stercus  cvocodilis  terrestris  mulieribus  confert  ad  colorem  facei 
nitorenique  producendum. 

"  Optimum  vero  quod  candidissimum  et  friabile  amyli  modo  leve  in 
humore  statira  eliquiescit,  atque  dum  teritur,  subacidum  est  et  fer- 
mentum  redolet.  Sunt  qui  id  vendant  adulterant  fimo  non  dissimili 
sturnorum  quos  oryza  paverunt.  Alii  amylum  aut  cimoliam  subigunt, 
et  adescito,  colore,  per  rarum  cribrum,  paullatim  percolant  et  siccant, 
ut  vermiculorum  specie  loco  genuini  vendant.  Ceterum  humanum 
stercus  siccum  melle  subactum,  et  gutturi  impositum  sicut  et  cani- 
num,  anginosis  opitulari  in  arcanis,  aut  turpibus  etiara  inveniunt."  — 
(Dioscorides,  "Materia  Medica,"  Latin-Greek  edit,  of  Kuhn,  Leipsig, 
1829,  vol.  i.,  pp.  222  et  seq.) 

"  Humanam  urinam  suum  cuique  bibere  prodest  contra  viperae 
morsus  et  letalia  pharmaca,  hydropemque  incipientem  ;  prodest  etiam 
ea  fovere  echinoriim  marinorum  scorpionis  itidem  marini  draconisque 
ictus.  Canina  rabidi  canis  morsibus  perfundendis  idonea  est ;  lepras 
quoque  et  pruritus,  nitre  addito,  exterit.  Vetus  etiam  achoras,  fur- 
fures, scabiem,  fervidasque  eruptiones  potentius  extergit,  quin  et 
ulcera  depascentia,  etiam  genitalium  coarcet.  Purulentis  quoque 
auribus  infusa  pus  condensat,  et  in  malicordio  cocta  animalcula  (quae 
forte  in  aures  irrepsirent)  ejicit.  Pueri  innocentis  absorta  urina  an- 
helantibus  confert,  cocta  vero  in  aereo  vaso  cum  melle  cicatrices  albu- 
gines  et  caligines  emendat. 

"  Quin  etiam  ex  ea  et  aere  cyprio  idoneum  auro  ferruminando  glutea 
paratur.  Sediraentum  urinse  erysipelata  illita  mitigat.  Fen^efactum 
cum  cyprino  appositumque  uteri  dolorem  deniulcet  ex  utero,  strangu- 
lata  levat,  palpebraa  deterget  et  oculorum  cicatrices  expurgat.  Tauri- 
num  lotium  cum  myrrha  tritum  et  instillatum  dolores  aurium  lenit. 

"  Aprinum  iisdem  viribus  praeditum  est  sed  peculiariter  vesicae  cal- 
culos  potu  comminuit  et  expellit.  Caprinum  traditur  ad  hydropem 
inter  cutem  cum  spica  nardi  binisque  aquae  cyathis  quotidie  bibiti 
urinas  ducere  et  alvum  instillatum,  vero  aurium  doloribus  mederi. 
Asinino  denique  ferunt  nephreticos  sanari."  —  (Dioscorides,  idem,  vol.  i. 
pp.  227  et  seq.) 

On  p.  228  Dioscorides  speaks  of  the  use  of  a  medicine  known  as 
"lynx  urine,"  but  wbich  he  says  was  a  variety  of  amber. 

THE   VIEWS   OF   GALEN. 

Galen  disapproved  of  the  pharmaceutical  use  of  human  ordure  on 
account  of  its  abominable  smell,  but  he  assented  to  the  employment 

19 


290  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

of  that  of  domestic  cattle,  goats,  crocodiles,  and  dogs ;  he  makes 
known,  moreover,  that  human  ordure  was  taken  internally,  as  a  med- 
cine,  by  very  many  persons. 

"  De  Copro,  Stercore,  Copros,  sive  Copron,  sive  Apoptema,  apellari 
velis  perinde  est.  Scito  autem  hauc  substantiam  vim  habere  vel  max- 
ime  digerentem.  Verum  stercus  humauum  ob  foetorem  abominandum 
est,  at  bnbulum,  caprinum,  crocodilorum  terrestrium,  et  canum,  ubi  in 
ossibus  duntaxat  vescuntur  neque  graviter  olet,  et  raulta  experientia 
non  tantum  nobis,  sed  et  aliis  medicis  me  natu  majoribus  comprobatum 
est.  Siquidem  Asclepiades  cui  cognomentum  erat  Pharmaceon,  et  alia 
omnia  medicamenta  collegit,  ut  multos  impleret  libros,  et  stercore  ad 
multos  SEepe  affectus  utitur  non  modo  medicamentis,  quse  focis  impo- 
nuntur  commiscens,  sed  iis  quoque  quae  intro  in  os  sumuntur."  — 
(Galeni  Claudii,  "Opera  Omnia,"  edit,  of  Dr.  Carl  Gottleib  Kuhn, 
Leipsig,  1826,  vol.  xii.,  pp.  290,  291.) 

Dog-dung,  especially  of  an  animal  "sola  ossa  cani  edenda  exhibens 
duobus  coutinuo  diebus,  ex  quibus  durum,  candidum,  ac  minime  foeto- 
rum  stercus  proveniebat."  Such  dog-dung  was  administered  in  angina, 
dysentery,  inveterate  ulcers,  etc.,  in  milk  or  other  convenient  men- 
struum."—  (Idem,  vol.  xii.  p.   291.) 

The  urine  of  boys  was  drunk  by  patients  suffering  from  the  plague 
in  Syria,  but  the  year  is  not  given.  —  (See  idem,  vol.  xii.  p.  285.) 

Galen  did  not  believe  that  calculi  had  the  slightest  value  for  effecting 
a  reduction  of  calculi.  —  (Idem,  lib.  xii.  p.  290.) 

Galen  could  not  bring  himself  to  agree  with  Xenocrates,  who  recom- 
mended the  internal  and  external  employment  of  sweat,  urine,  cata- 
menial  fluid,  and  ear-wax  in  medicine.  (Idem,  lib.  xii.  p.  249.)  "At 
potis  sudoris  aut  urince  aut  mensium  mulieris  abominanda  detestanda- 
que  est,  atque  horum  in  prirais  stercus,  quod  taraen  scribit  Xenocrates, 
si  oris  ac  gutturis  partibus  inungatur  et  in  ventrem  devoretur,  quid 
prsestare  valeat. — Scripsit  etiam  de  aurium  sordis  devorandis.  At  ego 
ne  has  quidem  morbo  deinceps  liber  degerem.  Atque  his  etiam  magis 
abominandum  puto  stercus.  Estque  probrum  gravius  homini  modcsto 
audire  stercorivorum  quam  fellatorum  aut  cinsedum. 

He  shows  that  it  was  used  by  some  physicians  in  "psoras,"  and  in 
"  lepras,"  in  the  washing  of  ulcers,  affections  of  the  ears  and  genitalia, 
as  an  embrocation  and  a  liniment  for  scald  and  scabby  head,  and  by 
rustics  in  the  alleviation  of  the  pains  of  sore  feet.  (Galen,  lib.  xii. 
p.  285  et  seq.) 

Galen  instances  the  ordure  of  a  boy,  dried,  mixed  with  Attic  honey, 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  291 

given  as  a  cure  for  consumption.  "  Stercus  pueri  siccum  cum  melle 
Attico  ad  laevorem  tritum."  (Idem,  lib.  xii.  p.  21)4.)  The  boy  was 
to  be  fed  on  vegetables  and  well-cooked  bread,  leavened,  made  with  a 
littlo  salt,  in  a  small  oven  (Clibanus,  Dutch  oven?).  The  boy  was  also 
to  be  temperate  in  drink,  using  only  a  small  quantity  of  good  wine.  — 
(Idem,  lib.  xii.  p.  291.) 

Wolf-dung  was  given  in  drink,  in  the  intervals  between  the  parox- 
ysms of  colic ;  the  white  excrement  ejected  after  eating  bones  was  re- 
r;.irded  as  the  stronger,  and  especially  that  which  had  not  touched  the 
ground,  —  a  thing  not  difficult  to  find,  because  he  says  the  wolf  has 
the  same  disposition  as  the  dog ;  that  is,  to  eject  its  urine  and  ordure 
upon  rocks,  stones,  thorns,  and  bushes,  whenever  possible,  etc.  — 
(Galen,  "Opera  Omnia,"  Kuhn's  edition,  lib.  xii.  pp.  295-297.) 

Goat-dung  was  useful  in  the  reduction  of  inveterate  hard  tumors 
and  boils.  Galen  used  it  with  great  success  when  made  into  a  cata- 
plasm with  barley  meal.  "  We  also  use  it,"  he  adds,  "  in  dropsy  " 
("aquam  inter  cutem").  It  was  also  employed  in  "lepras,"  "psoras," 
and  other  skin  aiFections.  It  was  applied  as  a  plaster  in  tumors  and 
other  swellings  and  in  abscesses  of  the  ear ;  also  in  bites  of  vipers 
and  other  wild  beasts  ("aliarum  bestiarum").  It  was  drunk  in  wine 
as  a  cure  for  the  yellow  jaundice,  and  applied  as  a  suppository,  mixed 
with  incense,  in  iiterine  hemorrhages.  But  Galen  thought  that  the 
internal  employment  at  least  of  such  disgusting  curatives  is  of  ques- 
tionable expediency,  especially  when  more  agreeable  remedies  may 
be  available.  This  objection  would,  of  course,  apply  with  special  force 
in  cities,  although  he  admits  that  travellers,  country  people,  and  those 
suflfering  from  poison,  must  use  the  first  thing  within  reach  (vol.  xii. 
p.  299).  Bull-dung  was  regarded  by  Galen  as  of  value  in  the  cure  of 
the  stings  of  bees  and  wasps  (see  notes  on  the  same  subject  taken  in 
the  State  of  New  Jersey) .  In  Mysia,  a  country  near  the  Hellespont, 
physicians  ordered  it  to  be  smeared  on  the  skins  of  dropsical  patients 
in  the  sun.  The  same  treatment  was  supposed  to  help  consumptive 
patients,  if  the  dung  was  that  of  grass-fed  stock  ;  but  he  repeats  that 
such  remedies  are  better  adapted  for  rustics  than  for  the  inhabitants 
of  cities  (lib.  xii.  p.  301). 

Sheep-dung  was  used  for  all  kinds  of  warty  and  excrescential  growths 
externally,  either  raw  or  burnt,  and  in  the  latter  case  was  often  mixed 
with,  or  superseded  by,  goat -dung  (lib.  xii.  p.  302). 

The  dimg  of  wild  doves  was  preferred  to  the  excrement  of  the  do- 
mestic pigeon ;  administered  internally,  generally  mixed  with  the  seed 


292  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

of  the  nasturtium,  iu  all  inveterate  pains  affecting  sides,  shoulders, 
skull,  loins,  kidneys,  in  vertigo,  head-aches,  etc.  It  was  used  just  as 
frequently  in  cities  as  in  rural  communities  (lib.  xii.  p.  302). 

Mouse-dung  seems  to  have  been  extensively  used  in  medical  prac- 
tice, although  Galen  ridicules  the  fact,  and  does  not  mention  the  pur- 
poses of  its  employment  (lib.  xii.  p.  307). 

The  dung  of  barn-yard  fowl  was  used  for  the  same  purposes  as  dove- 
dung.  Some  people  thought  that  the  dung  was  more  efficacious  if 
dropped  by  a  fowl  that  had  been  stuffed  with  mushrooms,  Galen  here 
takes  occasion  to  remark  that  all  animals  must  differ  in  the  character 
of  their  excreta  as  they  do  in  their  food  ;  the  same  animal,  by  a  change 
of  habitat,  and  consequent  change  of  food,  must  cause  a  perceptible 
variation  in  the  qualities  of  its  excrement  (lib.  xii.  p.  304).  Galen 
flatly  expresses  his  disbelief  in  the  medicinal  value  of  the  excrement  of 
the  goose,  stork,  eagle,  or  hawk,  although  he  admits  that  they  were 
used  internally  by  many  practitioners  of  good  standing,  in  difficulties 
of  the  respiratory  organs  ;  but  he  says  these  same  authorities  are  wont 
to  extol  the  merits,  in  the  treatment  of  the  same  diseases,  of  such  ab- 
surd remedies  as  night-owl's  blood,  human  urine,  etc.  —  (Galen,  lib.  12, 
p.  305.) 

Lucian,  in  his  treatise  upon  remedies  for  the  cure  of  gout  ("  trago- 
podagra"),  makes  mention  in  several  places  of  excrementitious  remedies, 

—  as,  for  example,  "  dung  of  mountain-goat  and  man," 

"  And  Bones,  and  Skin,  and  Fat,  and  Blood,  and  Dung, 
Marrow,  Milk,  Urine,  to  the  fight  are  brought. " 

—  (Edition  of  William  Tooke,  F.  R.  S.,  London,  1820,  vol.  i.  p.  7-41.) 

SEXTUS   PLACITUS. 

■  This  author  is  supposed  to  have  lived  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century  after  Christ. 

The  edition  of  his  work,  "  De  Medicamentis  ex  Animalibus,"  was 
printed  in  Lyons,  in  1537.  The  pages  are  not  numbered,  and  the 
citations  are  consequently  by  chapter. 

Goat-urine  was  given  as  a  drink  to  dropsical  patients  ("De  Capro"). 
This  urine  was  also  drunk  by  women  to  relieve  suppression  of  the 
menses. 

For  inflammation  of  the  joints,  goat-dung  was  dried  and  applied  as  a 
fine  powder ;  for  colic,  a  fomentation  of  hot  goat-dung  was  applied  to 
the  abdomen  ;  for  serpent  bites  it  was  applied  as  a  plaster,  and  also 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN   iMEDICINE.  293 

drunk  in  some  convenient  liquor.  For  tumors  goat-dung  was  to  be 
applied  externally. 

For  ear  troubles  goat-urine  was  applied  as  a  lotion.  "Ad  aures 
nimus  bene  audientium,  Apri  lotium  in  nitro  repositum  tepefactum, 
auribus  iustillatur  audire  facit "  ("De  Apro"). 

For  burns,  whether  by  water  or  fire,  burnt  cow-dung  was  to  be 
sprinkled  on.  "  Ad  combusturam  sive  ab  aqua,  sive  ab  igne  factam, 
Taurinus  fimus  combustus  et  aspersus  sanat"  ("  De  Tauro  "). 

**  Ad  profluvium  mulierum,  Taurus  ibicuncque  pastus  fuerit  folia 
ulmi  arboris  de  fimo  ipsius  facias  siccari  et  terre  in  pollinem  tenuissi- 
mum,  mitte  ipsum  in  carbones  in  quodam  testo,  et  deponas  in  vaso  et 
sedeat  mulier  quae  patitur  encatesma  diligenter  co-operta  (well  cov- 
ered up),  et  sanabitur  ut  mireris  "  ("  De  Tauro  "). 

Testo  means  the  "  lid  of  a  pot ;  "  encatesma  means  a  "  sitting-bath  ;  " 
and  the  sense  seems  to  be  that  the  woman  was  to  take  the  dung  of  a 
bull  which  had  been  eating  the  leaves  of  an  elm-tree,  dry,  reduce  to 
fine  powder,  throw  on  hot  coals  on  the  lid  of  a  pot,  and  let  the  woman 
sit  on  this,  well  covered  up,  and  have  a  steam-bath. 

For  all  kinds  of  tumors,  as  well  as  for  every  kind  of  head-ache, 
the  dung  of  elephants  was  applied  externally.  "  De  Elephantis.") 
He  makes  no  mention  of  the  use  of  asses'  dung,  but  strongly  recom- 
mends the  use  of  the  excrement  of  the  horse.  "  Ad  sanguinem  e 
naribus  profluentem,  equi  stercus  siccum  et  aspersum,  sanguinem 
fluentem  retinet,  maxime  naribus  suffumigatum."  He  also  recom- 
mends the  use  of  horse-dung  externally  in  the  treatment  of  ear- 
ache, and  for  retention  of  the  menses  internally.  "  Ad  aurium  dolorem, 
stercus  equi  siccum  et  rosaceo  succo  liquefactum  et  collatuni,  auribus 
instillatur  aurium  dolorem  perfecte  tollit.  .  .  .  Ad  ventrem  non  fluen- 
tem, nimiumque  tumescentem,  Equi  stercus  aqua  liquefactum,  et  per- 
colatum,  postea  bibitum,  mox  faciet  egressum."  —  ("  De  Equo.") 

Cat-dung  was  used  in  the  eradication  of  dandruff  and  of  scald 
in  the  head  ;  for  excessive  after-birth  hemorrhages  in  the  form  of  fumi- 
gation or  bath.  For  the  relief  of  a  person  who  had  swallowed  a  bone 
or  thorn,  his  fauces  were  rubbed  with  cat-dung.  For  the  relief  of  the 
quartan  ague,  hang  cat-dung  and  cow  horn  or  hoof  to  the  patient's 
arm  ;  after  the  seventh  attack  the  fever  will  leave  him  for  good.  — 
(Idem.     See  under  "  "Witchcraft,"  extract  from  EtmuUer,  p.  267.) 

Vulture-dung,  mixed  with  the  white  dung  of  dog,  cured  dropsy  and 
palsy,  especially  if  from  a  vulture  which  had  lived  on  human  flesh ;  to 
be  taken  internally.  —  ("  De  Vulture.") 


294  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

The  m-ine  of  a  virgin  boy  or  girl  was  an  invaluable  application  for 
affections  of  the  eyes ;  also  for  stings  of  bees,  wasps,  and  other  in- 
sects. As  a  cure  for  elephantiasis,  the  urine  of  boys  was  to  be  drunk 
freely.  "  Ad  elephautiam  puerorum,  pueri  lotium  si  puer  biberit 
liberaliter." 

The  crust  from  human  urine  was  useful  in  burns  and  in  bites  of  mad 
dogs.  (Idem.  See  notes  on  the  Parisian  "  Mangeurs  du  blanc")  For 
cancers  man's  ordure  was  burnt  and  sprinkled  over  the  sore  places ;  for 
tertian  fevers,  it  had  to  be  that  of  the  patient  himself;  and  to  be  held 
in  the  left  hand  while  burning,  then  placed  in  a  rag,  and  tied  to  his 
left  arm  before  the  hour  of  the  recurrence  of  the  fever.  "  Ad  terj;ianas, 
ipsius  segri  stercus  sinistra  manu  sublutum  comburunt  et  in  sinistro 
brachio  ante  horam  accessionis  suspendunt."  —  ("  De  Puello  et  Puella 
Virgine.") 

Hawk-dung,  boiled  in  oil,  made  an  excellent  application  for  sore 
eyes.  "  De  Accipitro.")  Crow-dung  was  given  to  children  to  cure 
coughs,  and  was  placed  in  carious  teeth  to  cure  tooth-ache.  —  ("De 
Corvi.") 

Dove-dung  was  applied  externally  to  tumors.  —  ("  De  Columba.") 

"SAXON    LEECH DOMS." 

In  "  Saxon  Leechdoms,"  is  arranged  the  medical  lore  of  the  early 
centuries  of  the  Saxon  occupancy  and  conquest  of  England. 

"Alexander  of  Tralles  (a.  D.  550)  .  .  .  guarantees,  of  his  own  ex- 
perience and  the  approval  of  almost  all  the  best  doctors,  dung  of  a 
wolf  with  bits  of  bone  in  it "  for  colic.  —  ("Saxon  Leechdoms,"  lib.  i. 
c.  18.) 

"  Bull's  dung  was  good  for  dropsical  men ;  cow's  dung  for  women  " 
(vol.  i.  c.  12,  quoting  Pliny,  lib,  xxviii.  c.  68). 

Swine-dung  was  applied  to  warts  (vol.  i.  p.  101). 

"  For  bite  of  any  serpent,  melt  goat's  grease  and  her  turd  and  wax, 
and  mingle  together ;  work  it  up,  so  that  a  man  may  swallow  it  whole  " 
(vol.  i.  p.  355,  quoting  Sextias  Flacitus). 

For  dropsy,  "  Let  him  drink  buck's  mie  .  .  .  best  is  the  mie. 
.  .  .  For  sore  of  ears,  apply  goat's  mie  to  the  ear.  .  .  .  Against 
chnrnels,  mingle  a  go.at's  turd  with  honey  .  .  .  smear  therewith." 

"For  thigh  pains,"  "for  sore  joints,"  "for  cancer,"  "against  swell- 
ings," "tugging  of  sinews,"  "carbuncle,"  "smear  with  goat's  dung" 
(vol.  i.  pp.  355,  357). 

"  For  every  sore  ...  let  one  drink  bull's  urine  in  hot  water ;  soon 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  295 

it  healeth.  .  .  .  For  a  breach  or  fracture  .  .  .  lay  bull's  dung  warm 
on  the  breach.  .  .  .  For  waters  burning  or  fires,  burn  bull's  dung 
and  shed  thereon."  (Idem,  p.  369.)  The  word  "shed"  as  here 
employed  means  to  urinate,  apparently. 

"  For  swerecothe  or  quinsy,"  the  Saxons  used  an  external  applica- 
tion of  the  white  "  thost  "  or  dung  of  a  dog  which  had  been  gnawing  a 
bone  before  defecation  (vol.  ii.  p.  49). 

"  Against  shoulder  pains,  mingle  a  tord  of  an  old  swine."  —  (Idem, 
p.  63.) 

"  If  a  sinew  shrank  .  .  .  take  a  she-goat's  tord  "  (p.  69). 

"  Against  swelling,  take  goat's  treadles  sodden  in  sharp  vinegar " 
(p.  73). 

For  a  leper,  boil  in  urine  hornbeam,  elder,  and  other  barks  and 
roots. —  (Idem,  p.  79.) 

"A  wound  salve  for  lung  diseases,"  —  of  this  the  dung  of  goose  was 
an  important  ingredient  (p.  93). 

"  A  salve  for  every  wound.  .  .  .  Collect  cow-dung,  cow-stale,  work 
up  a  large  kettle  full  into  a  batter,  as  a  man  worketh  soap,  then  take 
apple-tree  rind  "  and  other  rinds  mentioned,  and  make  a  lotion  (p.  99). 

For  felons,  leg  diseases,  and  erysipelas,  calf  and  bullock  dungs  were 
applied  as  a  fomentation  (p.  101). 

"  For  a  dew  worm,  some  take  warm,  thin  ordure  of  man,  they  bind 
it  on  for  the  space  of  a  night"  (vol.  ii.  p.  125). 

"  Against  a  burn,  work  a  salve ;  take  goate  turd,"  etc.  —  (Idem, 
p.  131.) 

"  For  a  horse's  leprosy  ,  .  .  take  piss,  heat  it  with  stones,  wash 
the  horse  with  the  piss  so  hot."  —  (Idem,  p.  157.) 

"  If  there  be  mist  before  the  eyes,  take  a  child's  urine  and  virgin 
honey ;  mingle  together.  .  .  .  Smear  the  eyes  therewith  on  the  in- 
side "  (vol.  ii.  p.  309). 

"For  joint  pain  .  .  .  take  dove's  dung  and  a  goat's  turd,"  exter- 
nally (vol.  ii.  p.  323). 

"For  warts  .  .  .  take  hound's  mie  and  a  mouse's  blood,"  exter- 
nally. —  (Idem,  p.  323.) 

"Against  cancer  .  .  .  take  a  man's  dung,  dry  it  thoroughly,  rub 
to  dust,  apply  it.  If  with  this  thou  were  not  able  to  cure  him,  thou 
mayst  never  do  it  by  any  means." —  (Idem,  p.  329.) 

"  Si  muliebra  nimis  fluunt  .  .  .  take  a  fresh  horse's  tord,  lay  it  on 
hot  glades,  make  it  reek  strongly  between  the  thighs,  up  under  the 
raiment,  that  the  woman  may  sweat  much."  —  (Idem,  pp.  332,  333.) 


296  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  A  smearing  for  a  penetrating  worm  "  was  made  with  "  two  buckets 
of  bullock's  mie,"  among  many  other  ingredients.  —  (Idem,  p.  333.) 

"  If  a  thorn  or  a  reed  prick  a  man  in  the  foot,  and  will  not  be  gone, 
let  him  take  a  fresh  goose  tord  and  green  yarrow  .  .  .  paste  them  on 
the  wound."  — (Idem,  p.  337.) 

"Against  a  penetrating  worm  .  .  .  smear  with  thy  spittle  .  .  . 
and  bathe  with  hot  cow-stale  "  (vol.  iii.  p.  11). 

"Against  a  warty  eruption.  .  .  .  Warm  and  apply  the  sham  or 
dung  of  a  calf  or  of  an  old  ox."  —  (Idem,  p.  45.) 

"An  asses  tord  was  recommended  to  be  applied  to  weak  eyes."  — 
(Idem,  p.  99.) 

AVICENNA. 

A  careful  examination  of  a  Latin  edition  of  "  Averrhoes,"  Lyons, 
1537,  discovered  nothing  in  regard  to  the  medicinal  use  of  human  or 
animal  egestse. 

But,  on  the  contrary,  the  works  of  Avicenna  teem  with  such  refer- 
ences ;  there  is  hardly  a  page  of  the  index  to  his  portly  volumes  that 
does  not  contain  mention  of  stercoraceous  remedies.  Out  of  all  this 
abundance  these  selections  will  show  that  the  Arabian  physicians  made 
of  such  medicaments  the  same  free  use  as  their  older  brethren  of  tlie 
subverted  Roman  empire:  "  Matricem  mundant,"  "Urina"  (vol.  i. 
p.  330,  a  38) ;  "Sanguinem  sistunt,"  "Urina  hominis  cum  cinere 
vitis"  (vol.  i.  p.  466,  a  26)  ;  "  Scabei,"  "Scabiei  ulcerosa  conferunt," 
"Urina"  (vol.  i.  p.  330,  a  8) ;  "Sciatica  conferunt,"  "  Stercus  vac- 
carum  et  Caprarum  cum  adipe  porci "  (vol.  i.  p.  390,  a  5) ;  for  scrof- 
ula "Stercus  Caprarum"  (vol.  i.  p.  388,  a  11)  ;  "  Lentiginibus  confer- 
unt," "stercus  lupi"  (vol.  i.  p.  387,  b  66);  "Erysipelati  conferunt," 
"fex  urinse  hominis  "  (vol.  i.  p.  330,  all);  while  for  the  same  disease, 
as  well  as  for  "  excoriationi  conferunt  "  were  prescribed  "  stercus  cameli 
et  pecudis"  (vol.  i.  p.  388,  all);  "  Ui-inse  fex,"  (idem,  vol.  i.  p.  408, 
a  39)  ;  "  Lapidi  conferunt,"  "  Stercus  muris  cum  thure  "  (vol.  i.  p.  390, 
b  2);  again  (vol.  i.  p.  361,  a  60)  ;  "urina  porci"  (vol.  i.  p.  408,  a  66). 

Lizard-dung  an  ingredient  in  a  collyrium  (vol.  ii.  p.  322,  a  34). 

"  Matricis  dolores  conferunt,"  "  urina  hominis  decocta  cum  porris  " 
(vol.  i.  p.  408,  b  1).  Goat-dung  "  Matrici  fluxui  conferunt,"  "  stercus 
caprarum  siccum  "  (vol.  i.  p.  388,  a  15,  and  vol.  i.  p.  390,  a  50). 

For  epilepsy,  one  of  the  remedies  was  "  stercus  cameli "  (vol.  i.  p. 
338,  a  6).  Yellow  jaundice,  "  Icteritias  conferunt,"  "  urina  mulieris 
cum  aqua  mellis  "  (vol.  i.  p.  330,  a  31)  ;  for  burns,  "Stercus  capra- 
rum et  ovium  cum  aceto"   (vol.  i.  p.  389,  b  62).     Another  remedy 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  297 

fur  burns  was,  "  Stercus  columbarum  cum  melle  ct  semine  lini "  (vol. 
i.  p.  389,  b6o). 

"Impetigine  conferunt,"  "urina  "  (vol.  i.  p.  330,  a  10)  ;  for  ulcers, 
**  Stercus  cameli  et  pecudis  "  (vol.  i.  p.  388,  a  9) ;  also  for  the  same, 
"  stercus  canis  ab  ossibus  cum  mellis  "  (vol.  i.  p.  390,  a  2) ;  also  "  uriua 
asini  et  hominis "  (vol.  i.  p.  408,  a  31)  ;  human  urine  again  pre- 
scribed for  ulcers,  in  vol.  i.  p.  231,  646. 

*' Stercoris  muris  decoctio"  alleviated  difficulty  in  urination  (vol.  i. 
p.  361,  a  63).  "Impetigine  conferunt,"  "stercus  columbarum  et 
turdorum"  (vol.  i.  p.  390  al). 

As  a  cure  for  the  wounds  of  Armenian  airows  (9,  "  De  sagittis  Ar- 
menis")  Avicenna  says:  "Jam  parvenit  ad  me  quod  potus  stercoris 
humani  est  theriaca  ad  illud  "  (vol.  i.  p.  305,  a  5).  ("Theriaca" 
means  literary  a  remedy  for  the  bites  of  serpents  and  wild  beasts,  but 
in  the  present  case  it  is  used  to  mean  a  panacea.) 

For  poisonous  bites,  "ad  morsum  viperarum  et  omnium  venenosorum 
animalium  "  "  et  iterum  quae  bonse  sunt  "  ("  Medicinse  "  understood) 
"est  stercus  caprinum  commixtum  in  vino  et  detur  in  potu  "  (vol.  ii. 
p.  227,  b  36)  ;  "  Urina  hominis  "  also  prescribed  for  the  same  in  the 
same  paragraph.  The  dung  of  goats,  mixed  with  pepper  and  cinna- 
mon, a  provocative  of  the  menses  (vol.  i.  p.  390,  a  49). 

The  dung  of  mice  prescribed  internally  for  the  cure  of  running  from 
the  ears,  to  aid  in  the  expulsion  of  the  after-birth,  calculus,  poison  of 
venomous  reptiles,  etc.  (vol.  i.  pp.  361,  a  58). 

"Matrici  fluxui  conferunt,"  "stercus  caprarum  siccum  "  (vol.  i.  p. 
383,  a  15,  and  vol.  i.  pp.  390,  a  50). 

"Spasma  conferunt,"  "Uriua"  (vol.  i.  p.  408,  a  40);  "Splenis 
duritiei  conferunt,"  "  Stercus  caprarum  "  (vol.  i.  p.  30,  a  50.) 

"Ano  conferunt,"  "Urina  infantium  lactentium"  (vol.  i.  p.  408, 
a  55.) 

"  Stercus  pecudis  adustum  cum  aceto  "  was  prescribed  for  the  bite 
of  a  mad  dog  (vol.  i.  pp.  388,  a  21) ;  "  Urina  cum  nitro  "  (idem,  vol.  i. 
p.  408,  b7),  "Canis  stercus  pro  anginae  curat  ion  e  "  (vol.  i.  p.  616, 
a  59). 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Marco  Polo  mentions  that  in  the  province  of  Carazan  (Khorassan  ?), 
the  common  sort  of  people  carried  poison  about  their  pei-sons,  so  that 
if  taken  prisoners  by  the  Tartars,  they  might  commit  suicide  ;  but  the 

Tartars  compelled  them  to  swallow  dog's  dung  as  an  antidote (See 

Marco  Polo,  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  vii.  p.  143.) 


293  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

"  In  cases  of  sickness,  the  Eskimo  of  Cumberland  Sound  are  not 
allowed  to  clean  their  chambers  before  sunrise."  —  ("  The  Central 
Eskimo,"  Boas,  p.  593.) 

The  writings  of  the  best  medical  authorities  for  the  first  two  centu- 
ries after  the  discovery  of  the  art  of  printing  teem  with  copious  disser- 
tations upon  the  value  of  these  medicaments  in  all  diseases,  and  as 
potent  means  of  frustrating  the  maleficence  of  witches  ;  the  best  of  these 
writings  will  be  selected  and  arranged  in  chronological  order. 

"  A  dram  of  a  shape's  tyrdle, 
And  good  Saint  Francis  gyrdle, 
With  the  hamlet  of  a  hyrdle, 
Are  wholsom  for  the  pyppe." 

(Brand,  "Pop.  Ant."  vol.  iii. 
p.  311,  art.  "  Rural  Charms,"  quoting  Bale,  "  Interlude  concerning  the  Laws  of  Na- 
ture, Moses,  and  Christ."  4to.  1562.) 

"  An  oyle  drawne  out  of  the  excrements  of  Chyldren  "  and  "  An  Oyle 
drawne  out  of  Maune's  Ordure,"  described  as  medicines  in  the  "  Newe 
Jewell  of  Health,"  by  George  Baker,  Chirurgeon,  London,  1576 
(Black  Letter),  pp.  171,  172,  was  prescribed  for  fistula  and  several 
other  ailments. 

"  "Water  distilled  from  !Manne's  Ordure  "  was  given  internally  for 
the  falling  sickness,  dropsy,  etc.  .  .  .  There  was  also  an  "  Oyle 
drawne  out  of  the  Excrements  of  Chyldren,"  as  well  as  one  from 
"Manne's  Ordure"  (see  "Doctor  Gesnerus,  faithfully  Englished,"  p. 
76).  In  the  same  work  we  read  of  "  Water  of  Doue's  dung  .  .  .  which 
helpeth  the  stone  "  when  taken  internally. —  (Idem  p.  77.) 

Paracelsus  seems  to  be  entitled  to  more  credit  than  is  generally  ac- 
corded him ;  he  was  a  chemist,  in  the  early  stages  of  that  science, 
groping  in  the  dark,  but  he  was  not  the  mere  quack  so  many  are 
anxious  to  make  him  out  to  have  been.  He  condemns  the  old  practice 
of  medicine  :  —  "  The  olde  Physitians  made  very  many  medicines  of 
most  filthy  things,  as  of  the  filth  of  tlie  eares,  sweat  of  the  body,  of 
women's  menstrues  (and  that  which  it  is  horrible  to  be  spoken),  of  the 
Dung  of  man  and  other  beastes,  spittle,  urine,  flics,  mice,  the  ashes 
of  an  owle's  head,  etc.  .  .  .  Truly,  when  I  consider  with  myself  the 
pride  of  these  fooles  which  disdaine  this  metalline  part  of  Physicko 
(which  after  their  manner,  contumeliously  they  call  Chymerican,  and 
therefore  can  neither  helpe  their  owne  nor  many  other  diseases),  I  call 
to  mind  a  storie  ...  of  Herachio  Ephesio,  which  being  sick  of  a  lep- 
rosie,  despising  the  help  of  Physitians,  anoynting  himself  over  with 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  299 

cow-dung,  set  himselfe  in  the  sun  to  drie,  and  falling  asleepe  was  torn 
to  pieces  by  dogges." —  (Paracelsus, "  Experiments,"  translation  of  1596, 
p.  59.) 

This  last  statement  should  be  compared  with  the  description  of  the 
suicides  of  the  East  Indian  fanatics,  given  under  "  Ordeals  and  Pun- 
ishments." 

Dr.  Fletcher,  United  States  Army,  states  that  in  old  medical  practice 
in  England,  from  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  down  to  comparatively 
modern  days,  consumptive  patients  were  dii-ected  to  inhale  the  fumes 
of  ordure.  "  Some  physicians  say  that  the  smell  of  a  jakes  is  good 
against  the  plague." — ("Ajax,"  p.  74.) 

Urine  was  one  of  the  ingredients  from  which  Paracelsus  prepared 
his  "  Crocus,  or  Tincture  of  Metals."  —  (See  "  Archidoxes,"  English 
translatioE,  London,  1661,  p.  59.) 

Further  on  he  says,  "  The  salt  of  man's  urine  hath  an  excellent 
quality  to  cleanse  ;  it  is  made  thus,"  etc.  (p.  74).  He  also  says: 
"  Man's  dung,  or  exci-ement,  hath  very  great  virtues,  because  it  contains 
in  it  all  the  noble  essences,  viz.  :  of  the  Food  and  Drink,  concerning  which 
wonderful  things  might  be  written."  —  ("Archidoxes,"  lib.  v.  p.  74.) 

"  To  distill  Oyle  of  a  Man's  Excrements,  .  .  .  Take  the  Doung  of 
a  young,  sanguine  child,  or  man,  as  much  as  you  will.  .  .  This  helpeth 
the  Canker  and  mollifieth  fistulas ;  comforteth  those  that  are  troubled 
with  Alopecea."  —  ("  The  Secrets  of  Physicke,"  London,  163.3,  p.  98.) 

"Fur  any  manner  of  Ache  .  .  .  a  plaister  of  Pigeon's  dung"  (see 
"  A  Rich  Storehouse  or  Treasurie  for  the  Diseased,"  Ralph  Blower, 
London,  1616,  black  letter,  p.  3)  ;  also,  "Hen's  Dung"  (idem,  p.  4)  ; 
to  provoke  urine,  a  plaster  of  Horse  dung  was  applied  to  the  patient, 
(p.  25.) 

"  For  spitting  of  blood  .  .  .  the  dung  of  mice  was  drunk  in  wine 
(idem,  p.  29)  ;  for  sore  breasts  of  women,  a  plaster  of  Goose  dung  (p. 
33)  ;  "  for  Burns  and  Scalds  ...  a  Plaster  of  Sheepe's  doung,"  (p.  38) ; 
also,  "  the  Doung  of  Geese  "  (p.  39). 

"  For  deafe  ears  .  .  .  the  pisse  of  a  pale  Goat "  was  poxired  into 
them  (p.  67)  ;  horse-dung  was  used  as  a  face-lotion  (p.  106);  for  the 
bloody  flux  soak  the  feet  in  water  in  which  "  Doue's  Doung  has  been 
seethed"  (p.  119).  For  the  gout,  "Stale  pisse"  was  an  ingredient  in 
a  composition  for  external  application  (p.  119).  For  stitch  in  the  side 
and  back  "  Pigeon's  Doung"  was  use  externally  (p.  172)  ;  for  sciatica, 
"  Oxe-Doung  and  Pigeon's  Doung  "  in  equal  parts,  were  applied  as  a 
plaster  (p.  173).     Cow-dung  was  used  internally  in  hydrocele  ("The 


300  SCATALOGIC   RITES    OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

Chyrurgeou's  Closet,"  London,  1632,  p.  38)  ;  The  urine  of  boys  was 
used  as  an  application  to  ulcers  in  the  legs  (idem,  p.  24)  ;  again,  the 
urine  of  immaculate  boys  was  employed  for  the  cure  of  all  inveterate 
ulcers  (p.  27)  ;  goat-dung  was  applied  externally  for  the  cure  of  auric- 
ular abscesses  and  for  ulcers  (pp.  35  and  42)  ;  cow-dung  and  dove- 
dung  were  used  in  the  same  manner  (idem  p.  42);  dove-dung  was 
also  used  externally  in  the  treatment  of  sciatica  (p.  48),  and  for 
*'  Shingles  "  (idem  p.  51).  Goat-dung,  externally,  for  tumors  (p.  49)  ; 
goose-dung,  externally,  for  canker  in  the  breasts  of  women  (p.  50)  ; 
swallow-dung,  externally,  for  angina;  chicken-dung  for  the  same 
(p.  58)  ;  cow-dung,  externally,  for  tumors  in  the  feet  (p.  56) ;  cow 
and  goat  dung,  externally,  in  dropsy  (p.  222)  ;  and  many  others 
throughout  the  volume. 

In  a  black  letter  co^jy  of  "The  Englishman's  Treasure," London,  1641, 
is  given  a  cure  for  wounds,  in  which  it  is  directed  "  To  wash  the  wounde 
very  cleane  with  urine." —  (In  Toner  Collection,  Library  of  Congress, 
Washington,  D.  C.) 

To  restrain  excessive  menstrual  flow,  apply  hot  plasters  of  horse- 
dung,  between  the  navel  and  the  privy  parts.  —  (See  "  The  English- 
man's Treasure,"  by  Thomas  Vicary,  Surgeon  to  King  Henry  VIII. , 
Queen  Mary,  and  Queen  Elizabeth;  London,  1641,  p.  184;  this  little 
volume  contains  nothing  else  of  value  to  this  work.) 

Horse-dung  was  used  internally  for  pleurisy  ("  Secrets  in  Physicke," 
by  the  Comtesse  of  Kent,  London,  1654,  pp.  26,  27);  goose-dung,  in- 
ternally, for  yellow  jaundice  (idem,  p.  37);  "Hound's  Turd,"  exter- 
nally, "to  cure  the  bleeding  of  a  Wound"  (idem,  p.  46);  peacock's 
dung,  internally,  for  the  falling  sickness  or  convulsions  (idem,  p.  56) ; 
"  The  patient's  own  water,"  externally,  for  pains  in  the  breast  (p.  64)  ; 
pigeon's  dung,  both  internally  and  externally,  in  child-birth  pains  (p. 
68);  goose-dung,  externally,  for  burns  (p.  96);  hen's  dung,  exter- 
nally, for  burns  (p.  152);  and  for  sore  eyes  (p.  174);  "stale  urine," 
externally,  for  sore  feet  (p.  163). 

"  The  stale  of  a  cow  and  the  furring  of  a  chamber-pot "  to  be 
given,  applied  locally  and  externally,  for  scald  head  ("  Most  excellent 
and  most  approved  Remedies,"  London,  1652,  p.  80).  "The  Urine  of 
him  that  is  sick,"  externally,  for  stitch  in  the  side  (p.  115)  ;  goose 
dung,  externally,  for  canker  in  woman's  breast  (p.  129)  ;  "  Urin  of  a 
Man  Child  (he  becing  not  aboue  3  years  of  age)"  was  a  component  in 
a  salve  for  the  king's  evil  (p.  132).  For  patients  sick  of  the  plague, 
"Let  them  drink  twice  a  day  a  draught  of  their  own  urin"  (p.  143). 


ORDUKE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  301 

"  A  certain  countryman  at  Antwerp  was  an  example  of  this,  who, 
when  he  came  into  a  shop  of  sweet  smells,  he  began  to  faint,  but  one 
presently  clapt  some  fresh  smoking  hoi-se-dung  under  his  nose  and 
fetched  him  to  again."  —  (Levinns  Lemnius,  "  The  Secret  Miracles 
of  Nature,'*  Eng.  translation,  London,  1G58,  p.  107,  speaking  of  the 
effects  of  sweet  and  nasty  smells  upon  different  persons.) 

"  The  urine  of  a  Lizard,  .  .  .  the  dung  of  an  elephant,"  were  in 
medical  use,  according  to  Montaigne  ("  Essays,"  Ilazlitt's  translation, 
New  York,  1859,  vol.  iii.  p.  23;  art.  "On  the  Resemblance  of  Children 
to  their  Parents").  Also,  "the  excrement  of  rats  beaten  to  powder" 
(idem).     The  above  remedies  were  for  the  stone. 

Doctor  Garrett  mentions  "  water  of  amber  made  by  Paracelsus  out 
of  cow-dung,"  and  gives  the  recipe  for  its  distillation,  as  well  as  for 
that  of  its  near  relative,  "  water  of  dung,"  the  formula  for  Avhich  begins 
with  the  words,  "  Take  any  kind  of  dung  you  please."  ^ 

The  work  of  Daniel  Beckherius,  "  Medicus  Microcosmus,"  published 
in  London,  in  1660,  is  full  of  the  value  of  excremeutitious  remedial 
agents. 

Urine  alone  was  applied  to  eradicate  lice  from  the  human  head ;  but 
a  secondary  application  of  dove's  dung  was  then  plastered  on  (p.  62). 
Urine  was  drunk  as  a  remedy  for  epilepsy,  used  as  an  eye-wash,  and 
various  other  ocular  affections,  and  dropped  into  the  ears  for  various 
abscesses  and  for  deafness  (pp.  63,  64). 

A  lotion  of  one's  own  urine  was  good  for  the  palsy  ;  but  where  this 
had  been  occasioned  by  venery,  excessive  drinking,  or  mercury,  the  urine 
of  a  boy  was  preferable  (p.  64).  A  drink  of  one's  own  urine,  taken 
while  fasting,  was  commended  in  obstructions  of  the  liver  and  spleen, 
and  in  dropsy  and  yellow  jaundice  (idem)  ;  but  some  preferred  the 
urine  of  a  young  boy  (p.  65).  For  jaundice  the  remedy  should  be 
drunk  every  morning,  and  the  treatment  continued  for  some  time 
(idem). 

For  retention  of  urine  the  remedy  was  to  drink  the  urine  of  a  young 
girl  (p.  66),  Urine  was  drunk  as  a  remedy  for  long-continued  constipation 
(idem)  ;  for  falling  of  the  womb  stale  urine  was  applied  as  a  fomenta- 
tion (idem) ;  for  hysteria  human  ordure  and  stale  urine  were  applied  to 
the  nostrils  (idem)  ;  the  urine  of  the  patient  was  drunk  as  a  cure  for 
worms  (idem )  ;  urine  was  used  as  a  wash  for  chapped  hands,  also  for 
all  cutaneous  disorders  (idem) ;  also  for  "ficus  ani  "  (p.  67).     For  gout 

1  Garrett,  Myths  in  Medicine,  New  York,  1884,  pp.  148,  149. 


302  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

in  the  feet  the  patient  should  bathe  them  in  his  own  urine,  also  for 
ti-avel  sores,  as  he  would  then  be  able  to  resume  his  journey  next  day 
(idem). 

One's  own  urine  was  drunk  as  a  preservative  from  the  plague, 
Beckherius  says  he  knew  of  his  own  knowledge  that  it  had  been  used 
with  wonderful  success  between  1620  and  1630  for  this  purpose. 

Urine  was  recommended  as  a  drink  in  lues  veneris ;  while  a  sufferer 
from  cancer  was  bathed  in  his  own  urine  and  Roman  vitriol ;  ulcers  were 
likewise  bathed  with  the  patient's  own  urine  (p.  68).  Urine  was  applied 
as  a  lotion  to  wounds,  bruises,  and  contusions  (p.  69).  Beckherius  recites 
the  case  of  a  laborer  who  was  buried  under  a  falling  mass  of  earth,  in 
1522,  but,  being  protected  by  some  obstruction,  nourished  himself  for 
seven  days  on  his  own  urine.  Besides  l)eing  used  alone  in  the  above 
cases,  urine  entered  as  an  ingredient  into  medicines  for  old  sores  (p.  72) ; 
against  the  growth  of  "wild  hairs,"  ocular  affections,  throat  troubles  as 
gargle  (p.  73),  affections  of  the  spleen  (p.  74).  The  urine  of  a  boy  was 
to  be  employed  in  paralysis  and  in  erysipelas  (idem) ;  the  urine  of  a 
boy  was  also  prescribed  in  suppression  of  the  menses,  and  the  urine  of 
a  man  in  podagra  (75).  The  urine  of  undefiled  boys  entered  into  the 
composition  of  aqua  opthahnica,  and  was  used  externally  in  rheumatism 
of  the  legs  (p.  74). 

The  urine  of  boys  was  used  as  an  ointment  in  some  fevers ;  also  as  a 
fomentation  in  tympanitis,  as  a  plaster  in  dropsy,  for  gangrene  and 
podagra,  in  various  clysters,  in  the  cure  of  calculi  and  cachexy  (pp.  78, 
79) ;  in  some  of  the  plasters  cow  and  dove  dung  also  entered.  F'or  the 
treatment  of  anasarca  there  was  a  "  spagyric  preparation  of  urine."  To 
make  the  spirit  of  urine  by  distillation,  some  took  the  urine  of  a 
healthy  man,  some  that  of  a  wine-drinking  boy  of  twelve  years  (pp.  81, 
82).  This  spirit  was  administered  in  lung  troubles,  in  dropsy,  sup- 
pression of  the  menses,  all  kinds  of  fevers,  retention  of  urine,  calculus, 
etc.  (p.  85)  ;  also  in  eye  troubles,  strangury,  diabetes,  podagra, 
catarrh,  melancholia,  phrensy,  cardialgia,  syncope,  dj'sentery,  plague, 
malignant  fevers  (p.  86). 

The  "  spirit  of  urine  "  was  again  distilled  with  vitriol  to  make  an 
anti-podagric  remedy  (85). 

Salt  of  urine  was  made  by  distilling  the  urine  of  a  boy  and  collect- 
ing the  saline  residuum  ;  it  was  administered  in  cardiac  troubles  and  to 
aid  in  the  expulsion  of  the  dead  foetus  ;  from  it  were  made  various  em- 
pirical remedies,  —  moon  salt,  the  salt  of  Jove,  salt  of  Mercury,  spirit 
of  Orion,  mercurius  microcosmicus,  which  were  used  for  all  kinds  of 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  303 

physical  infirmities  (p.  87).  The  quintessence  of  urine  was  distilled 
from  the  urine  of  a  strong,  health}',  chaste  man  of  thirty  years,  who 
had  drunk  heavily  of  wine  for  the  occasion  ;  by  another  authority  it  is 
recommended  that  this  happen  while  the  sun  and  Jupiter  may  be  in 
'  Piscibus."  This  was  used  in  calculi  of  the  kidneys  and  bladder  and 
in  all  ulcerations  of  those  parts  ;  externally,  as  a  lotion  in  gonorrhoea 
and  external  ulcers  of  the  private  parts,  for  wounds  and  lesions  of  all 
«orts,  urinary  troubles,  worms,  putrid  fevers,  and  as  a  preservative 
against  the  plague,  for  hard  tumors,  etc.  (p.  97). 

An  "  anti-epileptic  spirit "  had  the  urine  of  boys  as  its  main  com- 
ponent (p.  95)  ;  there  was  an  "  anti-epileptic  extract  of  the  moon 
(p.  96)  ;  an  "  anti-podagric  medicament "  of  the  same  components 
almost.  A  "  panacea  Solaris  "  had  for  its  principal  ingredient  the  urine 
of  a  boy  who  had  been  drinking  freely  of  wine  (p.  97). 

HUMAN    ORDURE, 

Beckherius  cites  a  case  where  its  use  for  three  days  cured  a  man  of 
yellow  jaiaudice  ;  dried,  powdered,  and  drunk  in  wine,  it  cured  febrile 
paroxysms  (p.  112)  ;  it  was  recommended  to  be  that  of  a  boy  fed  for 
some  time  on  bread  and  beans. 

To  smell  human  ordure  in  the  morning,  fasting,  protected  from 
plague  (pp.  112,  113). 

He  also  gives  the  mode  of  preparing  "zibethum,"  or  "occidental 
sulphur"  (p.  116). 

As  a  cure  for  angina  a  mixture  was  prescribed  containing  the  white 
dung  of  dogs  ;  also  human  ordui-e,  swallow-dung,  licorice,  and  candy 
(p.  113).  In  cancer,  human  ordure  was  applied  as  a  plaster,  mixed 
with  turpentine,  tobacco,  antimony,  powdered  litharge,  powdered  crabs, 
etc.  (pp.  113,  11 4). 

He  also  gives  the  formulas  for  preparing  aqua  and  oleum  ex  stercore 
humano  (p.  114).  In  other  places  the  use  of  ordure  and  urine  in  medi- 
cine is  mentioned  as  a  matter  of  course.  —  (See  p.  274  ;  also  under  the 
headings  of  "Ass,"  "Mouse,"  "Horse,"  etc.;  again,  pp.  114,  192 
et  seq.) 

Beckherius  gives  a  list  of  a  number  of  preparations  which  to  our 
more  enlightened  view  of  such  things  must  appear  trivial,  and  need 
not  be  repeated  here  in  detail,  —  such  as  one  for  "  extracting  the 
vitriol  of  metals,"  etc.  Into  the  preparation  of  all  these  human  urine 
entered. 

Potable  gold  was  made  with  a  menstruum  of  spirits  of  wine  and 


304  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

human  urine,  half  and  half  (pp.  100-102)  ;  there  was  an  "  oil  of  sul- 
phur" prepared  from  human  urine  (103);  there  was  a  "  precipitate 
of  mercury  and  urine  "  (idem)  ;  there  was  finally  a  ludum  urince,  the 
residuum  after  the  distillation  of  the  aqua  or  the  spiritus  respectively, 
which  was  prescribed  medicinall}'^  in  the  same  way  as  these  were 
(pp.  109,  110). 

Yon  Helmont  called  the  salt  obtained  by  the  distillation  of  human 
urine  "  duelech."  (See  "  Oritrike,  or  Physicke  Refined,"  John  Baptist 
von  Helmont,  English  translation,  London,  1662,  pp.  847-849.)  This 
was  the  name  generally  given  by  Paracelsus  to  the  stone  in  the  bladder. 
Yon  Helmont  instances  a  cure  of  tympanitis  or  dropsy  by  a  belly- 
plaster  of  hot  cow-dung,  and  adds,  "  Neither,  therefore,  doth  Paracelsus 
vainly  commend  dungs,  seeing  that  they  are  the  salts  of  putrefied 
meats"  (p.  520). 

"Petrseus  (Henricus)  Nosolog.  Harmon,  lib.  i.  dissertat.  13,  p.  252, 
et  Job.  Schtederas,  pharmacop.  med.  chym.  lib.  v.  p.  829,  "stercus 
siccatum  tritum  et  cum  melle  illitum  ad  anguinam  curandam  magni 
usus  esse  dicunt."  —  ("  Bib.  Scatalogica,"  p.  84.) 

The  ponderous  tomes  of  Michael  Etmuller  contain  all  that  was 
known  or  believed  in  on  this  subject  at  the  time  of  their  publication, 
A.  D.  1690.  He  gives  reasons  for  the  employment  of  each  excrement, 
solid  or  liquid,  human  or  animal,  which  need  not  be  detailed  at  this 
moment. 

Human  urine.  "  Urina  calif,  exsiccat,  resolvit,  abstergit,  discutit, 
mundificat,  putredini  resistit,  ideoque  usus  est  prcccipue  mtriusecus  in 
obstructione  epatis,  lienis,  vesica,  biliara),  pestis  preservatione,  hy- 
drope,  ictero.  .  .  .  Exstrinsecus  siccat  scabiem,  resolvit  tumores,  mun- 
dificat vulnera  etiam  venenata,  arcet  gangrcenam,  solvit  alvum  (in 
clysmata)  abstergit  furfures  capitis.  .  .  .  compescit  febrilcs  insulins 
(pulsui  applicata)  exulceratas  aures  sanat  (instillata  pueri  urina)  ocu- 
lorum  tubedine  subvenit  (instillata)  artuum  tremorem  tollit  (lotione) 
uvulse  tumorem  discutit  (gargas),  lienis  dolores  sedat  (cum  cinere 
cataplasmata)." 

From  the  urine  of  a  wine-drinking  boy,  "urina  pueri  (ann.  12)  vinum 
bibentis,"  distilled  over  human  ordure,  was  made  "spiritus  urinse"  of 
great  value  ui  the  expulsion  of  calculi,  although  it  stunk  abominably, 
"sed  valde  foetet."  This  was  employed  in  the  treatment  of  gout, 
asthma,  calculi,  and  diseases  of  the  bladder.  (Etmuller,  "  Schroderi 
Diluc,"  vol.  ii.  p.  265.)  There  are  several  other  methods  given  of 
obtaining  this  "  spiritus  urinse  per  distillationem." 


ORDURE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  305 

Then  there  was  a  "  spiritus  urinse  per  putrefactionem."  To  make 
this,  the  urine  of  a  boy  twelve  years  old,  who  had  been  drinking  wine, 
was  placed  in  a  receptacle,  surrounded  by  horse-dung  for  forty  days, 
allowed  to  putrefy,  then  decanted  upon  human  ordure,  and  distilled 
in  an  alembic,  etc.  There  were  other  methods  for  making  this  also, 
but  this  one  will  suffice.  The  resulting  fluid  was  looked  upon  as 
a  great  "anodyne"  for  all  sorts  of  pains,  and  given  both  internally 
and  externally,  as  well  as  in  scurvy,  hypochondria,  cachexy,  yellow 
and  black  jaundice,  calculi  of  the  kidneys  and  bladder,  epilepsy,  and 
mania. 

"  Potable  gold  "  was  made  from  this  spirit.  "  Idem  spiritus  optime 
purificatus  (scil.  aliquoties)  in  aqua  pluvia  solvendo  et  distillando  cum- 
que  spiritus  vini  analytice  unitus  solvit  aurum,  unde  aurum  potabile  " 
(vol  ii.  p.  266). 

A  urine  bath  was  good  for  gout  in  the  feet.  A  drink  of  one's  own 
urine  was  highly  praised  as  a  preservative  from  the  plague.  "Urince  : 
Potus  urinse  proprise  laudatur  in  preservanda  et  curanda  peste." 
Such  a  draught  was  also  used  by  women  in  labor.  "  Urinae  hausta  a 
mulieribus  parturientibus  partum  facilitat."  Clysters  of  urine  were 
administered  in  tympanites,  or  dropsy  of  the  belly.  Urine  was  ap- 
plied in  ulcerations  of  the  ears. 

Saltpetre  was  formerly  made  from  earth,  lime,  etc.,  saturated  with 
human  urine,  oi'dure,  etc. 

The  "spiritus  urinse"  obtained  by  the  distillation  of  urine,  removed 
obstructions  from  the  bladder,  meatus,  etc.,  expelled  calculi,  and  was  a 
diaphoretic  and  an  anti-scorbutic ;  it  was  likewise  used  in  the  cure  of 
hypochondria,  cachexy,  chlorosis,  etc.,  taken  internally. 

From  the  distillation  of  vitriol  and  urine  an  anti-epileptic  medicine 
was  obtained.  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  271.) 

From  the  above-mentioned  "  spiritus  urinse  per  distillationem  "  was 
prepared  "  magisterium  urinse  sen  microcosm!,"  useful  in  cases  of 
atrophj' ;  it  also  prevented  the  pains  of  the  stone,  if  taken  monthly 
before  the  new  moon.  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  p.  268.) 

Human  ordure.  "  Stercus  (carbon  humanum  Paracelsi,  aliis  sulph. 
occiden.)  emoUit,  maturat,  anodynum  est.  Ea  propter  magni  usus  ad 
mitigandum  dolores  incantatione  introductos  (irapositum)  ad  anthraces 
pestilcntiales  maturandos,  ad  phlegmonem,  v.  g.  gutturis  seu  anginam 
curandam  (siccatum,  tritum  et  cum  melle  illitum)  ad  inflammationem 
vulnerum  arcendam.  Quin  et  intrinsecus  a  nonnullis  adhibetur  in  an- 
gina (crematum  et  potui  datum),   in  febribus    ad   paroxysmos   prof- 

20 


306  SCATALOGIC  BITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

ligandos  (eodem  modo  propinatum  dos.  32),  in  epilepsia,  quam  stercus 
primuin  infantuli  siccatum  et  pulverisatura,  et  ad  coraplures  dies 
exhibitum,  radicitus  evellere  aiunt "   (vol.  ii.  p.   2GG). 

He  alludes  to  the  "aqtia"  and  the  "oleum"  "ex  stercore  distilla- 
tum,"  both  used  in  ophthalmic  diseases,  as  cosmetics  to  restore  color  to 
the  face,  to  restore  and  produce  hair,  to  cure  tumors  and  fistulas,  and 
remove  cicatrices,  and  for  the  cure  of  epilepsy.  "  Interne  prodesse 
aiuut  comitialibus  et  hydropicis,  lapidemque  renum  et  vesicae  pellere, 
morsibusque  canis  rabidi,  venenatorumque  animalium  subvenire." 
The  "oleum  ex  stercore"  had  to  be  prepared  from  the  ordure  of  a 
youug  man,  not  a  boy,  "  juvenis,  non  pueri "  (vol.  ii.  p.  260). 

Etmuller  tells  the  same  story  we  have  already  had  from  so  many 
other  sources,  in  regard  to  the  medicinal  properties  ascribed  to  human 
ordure.  It  was  looked  upon  as  a  valuable  remedy,  applied  as  a  poul- 
tice for  all  inflammations  and  suppurations,  carbuncles  and  pest  bu- 
boes, administered  for  the  cure  of  bites  of  serpents,  and  all  venomous 
animals.  It  should  be  taken  raw,  dried,  or  in  drink.  It  was  the  only 
specific  against  the  bites  of  the  serpents  of  ludia,  especially  the  "  na- 
pellus,"  whose  bite  kills  in  four  hours  unless  the  patient  adopts  this 
method  of  cure.  It  was  considered  a  specific  against  the  plague,  and 
of  great  use  in  effecting  "  magico-magnetic  "  or  "  sympathetic  or  trans- 
plantation "  cures.  It  was  also  in  high  repute  for  baffling  the  efforts 
of  witches. 

"Water  distilled  from  ordure  was  good  for  sore  eyes,  especially  if  the 
man  whose  ordure  was  used  had  been  fed  only  on  bread  and  wine. 
This  was  administered  internally  for  dropsy,  calculus,  epilepsy,  bites 
of  mad  dogs,  carbuncles,  etc."  (vol.  ii.  p.  272). 

"  Zibetta  occidentalis  nihil  est  aliud  quam  stercus  mediante  diges- 
tione  ad  suavolentiam  redactum,  qua  Zibettam  mentitur;  vid.  Agri- 
cola,"  vol.  ii.  p.  2G6. 

Of  the  value  of  this  "zibethum"  Etmuller  quotes  from  an  older 
authority  :  "  Kosencranzerus  in  Astron.  inferior  (p.  232),  dicit  quod 
zibethum  humauum  ...  si  illinatur  parti  genitali  mulieris  fcEmiua 
attrahat  fostum  et  precaveatur  abortus"  (vol.  ii.  p.  272). 

Human  ordure,  containing  as  it  does  "  an  anodyne  sulphur,  .  .  . 
destructive  of  acids,"  was  supposed  to  be  beneficial  in  b\u-ns,  inflamma- 
tions, and  as  a  plaster  for  the  dispersal  of  plague  buboes.  ...  In 
insulis  Botiis  dictis,  gens  quoddam  serpentis  repiriri,  cujus  morsum 
mors  sequatur,  nisi  stercus  proprium  demorsi  mox  assumatur.  Tan- 
dem aqua  stercoris  humani  cosmetica,  ab  aliis  ophthalmatica  censetur 


ORDURE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  307 

sic  ut  et  ejusdem  oleum  contra  cancrum  mammarura  specifice  com- 
meudatur  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  171). 

"  In  stercoribus  animalium  magna  latet  vis  medica,  ratione  scilicet 
salis  volatilis ;  in  specie  stercus  porciuum  onmes  hiemorrhagias  ad 
miraculum  sistit,  sive  in  forma  pulveris  ad  3  i.,  sive  in  forma  electuarii 
adhibens;  annus  est  quo  rustica  quajdam  post  abortum  insigne  patie- 
batur  mensium  profluvium  uui  cum  meo  suasu  maritus  inscie  propi- 
nasset  stercus  suillum,  fluxus  cessavit  et  mnlier  pristinae  reddita 
sanitati.  Stercus  equmum  summum  est  remedium  in  passione  hys- 
terica, et  doloribus  colicis,  si  succus  expressus  cum  cerevisia  vel  vino 
propinetur;  sic  quoque  conducit  in  variolis  et  morbilis  infantum,  prop- 
iuatus  cum  cerevisia  calida,  qui  optime  per  sudorem  expellit  ut  taceam 
de  effectu  quem  prtestat  in  pleuritide  laudando. 

Ut  ita  licet  volatilia  in  uno  puncto  convenire  videantur,  diversis 
taraen,  ratione  diversse  et  specificse  cujuslibet  craseus  raedeantur  mor- 
bos  "  (vol.  ii.  sect.  3,  "  Pyrotechnia  Eationalis,"  —  "  de  Animalibus," 
Etmuller,  "  Opera  Omnia,"  xx.) 

"  Animalium  omnium  participant  de  natura  salis  ammoniac!  constant 
quippe  (are  certainly  known)  ex  acido  et  alcali  oleoso  volatili  indeque, 
aurae  beneficio  alterantur  in  nitro,  prsesertim  avium  excrementa  quic- 
qnid  igitur  prsestant,  operantur  ex  vi  salis  ammoniacali  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  171). 

The  use  of  animal  dungs  was  noted,  but  not  unqualifiedly  com- 
mended by  Etmuller,  in  the  following  cases  :  dog-dung,  mixed  with 
honey,  for  inflammation  of  the  throat ;  wolf-dung,  in  form  of  powder, 
as  an  anti-colic. 

Dog-dung  (album  Groecum  officinalis)  was  regarded  as  useful  in  dys- 
entery, epilepsy,  colic ;  was  applied  externally  in  angina,  malignant 
ulcers,  hard  tumors,  warty  growths,  etc.  Especial  value  was  attached 
to  such  dung  gathered  in  the  month  of  July,  from  a  bone-fed  dog, 
because  it  was  whiter,  purer,  and  less  fetid.  Dog-urine  was  employed 
as  a  lotion  for  warty  growths,  ulcers  on  the  head,  etc.  (vol.  ii.  p.  253). 

"  Dicitur  in  officinis  semper  album  Graecum,  nunquam  stercus." 
The  dog  "debite  nutriatnr  cum  ossibus  solis,  cum  nullo  vel  pauco 
potu  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  254). 

Goat-dung  was  used  in  hard  tumors  of  the  spleen  and  other  parts  of 
the  body ;  in  buboes,  ear-abscesses,  inveterate  ulcers,  dropsy,  scabby 
head,  lichen,  etc.  (p.  254).  In  all  these  its  use  was  external,  but  for 
other  troubles  of  the  spleen,  yellow  jaundice,  retention  of  the  menses, 
and  similar  ailments,  it  was  given  internally.  Goat-urine  was  given 
internally  in  removal  of  calculi,  urinary  troubles,  and  (after  distilla- 


308  SCATALOGIC   EITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

tion)  for  dropsy.     The  egestae  of  tlie  wild  goat  were  used  for  almost 
identically  the  same  disorders  (vol.  ii.  p.  254). 

The  juice  of  horse-dung  was  used  by  the  English  iu  colic,  pleurisy, 
and  hysteria.  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  p.  254.) 

Pig-dung,  dried,  snuflFcd  up  into  the  nostrils,  cured  nasal  hemor- 
rhages. Compare  this  with  the  use  made  of  the  dried  excrement  of 
the  Grand  Lama  as  a  sternutatory  and  general  curative. 

Hyena-dung  was  used  in  medicine,  but  the  diseases  are  not  men- 
tioned. 

Sparrow-dung  and  mouse-dung,  if  made  into  pills,  and  taken  to  the 
number  of  nine,  would  bring  on  the  menses  of  women. 

Cow-dung  was  recommended  as  a  fomentation  in  gout. 

The  use  of  cow-dung,  internally,  was  highly  commended  for  expel- 
ling calculi  and  for  the  cure  of  retention  of  urine,  on  account  of  the 
"  volatile  nitrous  salts  which  ascended  in  the  alembic,  and  which  had 
a  good  effect  upon  the  kidneys." 

The  common  people  drank  the  juice  expressed  from  this  dung  iu  all 
cases  of  colic  and  pleurisy,  for  which  they  found  it  a  beneficial  medicine. 
"  Ulterius  valde  couvenit  ad  pellendum  calculum  et  ciendam  urinam 
propter  sal.  vol.  nitrosum  qui  ascendit  per  alembicam  unde  ad  nephri- 
tidem  et  ciendam  urinam  valde  commendatur  a  poterio.  .  .  .  Plebii 
in  colico  dolore  succum  ex  stercore  propinant,  quod  verum  est,  non 
solum  in  colico  sed  etiam  in  pleuritide  prsesentaneum  remedium  " 
(vol.  ii.  pp.  249,  250). 

The  juice  of  young  geese,  gathered  in  the  month  of  March,  was  used 
in  jaundice  and  cachexy.  .  .  .  Hen-dung  was  sometimes  employed  as 
a  substitute  for  goose-dung.  Peacock-dung  was  employed  in  all  cases 
of  vertigo.  .  .  .  Swallow-dung  was  used  in  cases  of  angina  and  inflam- 
mation of  the  tonsils  (vol.  ii.  p.  171). 

Hawk-dung  was  used  for  sore  eyes.  Diick-dung  "  fimus  morsui  vene- 
natorum  animalium  imponitur  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  286). 

Goat-dung,  drunk  in  cases  of  hemorrhage.  .  .  .  Goat-urine  consid- 
ered a  specific  for  the  expulsion  of  calculi  of  the  bladder.  Asses'  urine 
drunk  for  diseases  of  the  kidneys,  atrophy,  paralysis,  consumption,  etc. 
Asses'  dung  taken  internally  in  form  of  powder  or  potion,  and  applied 
also  externally  in  all  cases  of  hemorrhage,  excessive  uterine  flow,  and 
troubles  of  that  nature  (vol.  ii.  p.  247).  It  was  thought  by  some  to 
be  best  when  gathered  in  the  month  of  May ;  others  thought  that  dog- 
dung  should  be  substituted.  Cow-urine  was  a  beneficial  application 
to  sore  eyes. 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  309 

Cow-dung  was  used  in  all  cases  of  bums,  inflammations,  rheumatism, 
etc.,  "apum  ac  vesparum  morsibus."  (We  have  already  seen  that  it 
has  been  used  for  bee  stiugs  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey.)  "  Suffitu 
reprimit  uterum  prolapsura."  Finally,  it  was  used  as  a  plaster  in 
dropsy.  — (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  p.  248.) 

Dove-dung  was  applied  generally  in  cataplasms  and  rubefacient 
plasters  for  the  cure  of  rheumatism,  headache,  vertigo,  colic  pains, 
apoplexy ;  also  in  boils,  scorbutic  swellings,  etc.,  and  drunk  as  a  cure 
for  dropsy.  — (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  p.  287.) 

Quail-dung,  "  fimum  in  vino  potum,  dysenteriam  sanare  tradit  Kyna- 
rides  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  288). 

Fresh  calf-dung  was  rubbed  on  the  skin  for  the  cure  of  erysipelas. 

Fox-dung  was  applied  externally  for  the  cure  of  all  cutaneous  dis- 
orders (vol.  ii.  pp.  283-285). 

Kid-dung  (Capreolus  or  Chevreul)  was  drunk  as  a  cure  for  yellow 
jaundice  (vol.  ii.  p.  257). 

Cat-dung  was  applied  as  a  poultice  to  scab  in  the  head  and  to  gout 
in  the  feet  (vol.  ii.  p.  259). 

Horse-dung,  fresh  or  burnt  to  ashes,  was  applied  externally  as  a 
styptic,  used  as  a  fumigation  to  aid  in  the  expulsion  of  the  foetus  and 
after-birth  ;  also  drunk  as  a  potion  for  colic  pains,  strangulation  of 
the  uterus,  expulsion  of  the  foetus  and  after-birth,  and  for  pleurisy. 
"Stercus  equinum  est  medicina  magni  et  multi  usus.  ,  .  .  Interne 
succus  ex  stercore  recenti  expressus."  For  the  certain  cure  of  pleurisy, 
it  should  be  the  dung  of  a  young  stallion,  especially  if  oat-fed.  "  In 
Angina  certe  stercus  equinum  non  cedit  stercori  hirundinum  .  .  .  et 
canis"  (voL  ii.  p.  263). 

Lion-dung,  taken  internally,  was  an  anti-epileptic. 

Hare-dung  was  administered  internally  in  calculus  and  dysentery, 
and  externally  for  burns. 

Hare-urine  was  applied  in  ear  troubles. 

Wolf-dung  was  found  efficacious,  taken  internally,  in  colic. 

Musk  was  frequently  given,  mixed  with  zibethum,  as  a  carminative  ; 
also  as  a  nervine  and  a  cardiac. 

Mouse-dung  found  its  advocates  as  a  remedy,  given  internally,  in 
the  constipation  of  children,  calculi,  used  in  enemata. 

The  internal  administration  of  rat-dung  removed  catamenial  ob- 
structions. 

Mouse-dung  was  styled  "  album  nigrum ; "  dog-dung,  "  album 
Grsecura." 


310  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

Sheep-dung  was  administered  internally  in  yellow  jaundice  ;  "  max- 
imi  U8U8  in  aurigine,  sumptum  cum  petroselino "  (rock-parsley),  — 
while,  externally,  it  was  applied  to  hard  tumors,  swellings,  boils, 
burns,  etc. 

The  urine  of  red  or  black  sheep  was  given  internally  in  dropsy. 
"  Urina  (nigrae  vel  rubrae  ovis)  sumpta,  aquam  inter  cutem  abigit." 
The  dose  was  from  five  to  six  ounces. 

Hog-dung,  externally,  in  cutaneous  disoi'ders,  bites  of  venomous 
animals,  nasal  hemorrhage,  —  for  the  cure  of  this  last  even  the  odor 
was  suflBcient ;  "  sufficit  etiam  odor." 

Michaelus  Etmuller,  "Opera  Omnia,"  "Schroder!  dilucidati Zoologia," 
Lyons,  1690,  vol.  ii.  pp.  263-279,  inclusive. 

Quail-dung  was  administered  for  epilepsy  when  the  bird  had  been  fed 
on  hellebore.  —  (Etmuller,  "Opera  Omnia,"  "Schrod.  Diluc.  Zool." 
vol.  ii.  p.  288.) 

Cuckoo-dung,  taken  in  drink,  cured  the  bites  of  mad  dogs.  —  (Idem.) 

White  hen-dung  was  preferred  for  medicinal  purposes.  It  was  em- 
ployed for  the  same  ailments  as  dove-dung,  but  was  not  believed  to  bo 
so  efficacious.  It  was  especially  valuable  in  colic  and  uterine  pains,  in 
yellow  jaundice,  calculus,  abscesses  in  the  side,  suppression  of  urine, 
etc.  (vol.  ii.  p.  289), 

There  was  another  cure  for  the  bites  of  mad  dogs,  —  the  dung  of 
the  swallow  taken  internally.  It  was  also  considered  to  be  a  cure  for 
colic  pains  and  kidney  troubles,  and  was  made  into  a  suppository  in 
cases  of  irritation  of  the  rectum  (vol.  ii.  p.  290). 

•     Kite-dung  was  sometimes  applied  externally  in  pains  of  the  joints 
(vol.  ii.  p.  291). 

As  a  purgative,  starling  dung  is  enumerated  in  this  strange  list  of 
filthy  medicaments  (vol.  ii.  p.  292). 

The  egestae  of  wild  oxen  was  used  for  the  same  therapeutical  pur- 
poses as  the  excrement  of  the  domesticated  bovines  (vol.  ii.  p.  252). 

Peacock-dung.  "  Stercus  proprietate  vertiginem  et  epilcpsiam  sanat 
(in  dies  multos  exhibitnm)."  It  should  be  administered  in  wine,  and 
the  treatment  was  to  be  persisted  in  from  the  new  imtil  the  full  moon, 
or  longer.  "  Continuando  a  novilunio  usque  ad  plenilunium,  aut  am- 
plius.  ...  In  epilepsiam  est  specificum  magno  usu  expertum."  It 
was  likewise  considered  of  great  value  in  the  cure  of  vertigo,  but  the 
dung  of  the  cock  should  be  given  to  men ;  that  of  the  hen,  to  women. 
Etmuller,  however,  did  not  think  this  distinction  to  be  necessary  (vol. 
ii.  pp.  292,  293). 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  311 

The  dung  of  geese,  old  or  young,  was  employed  in  the  treatment  of 
yellow  jaundice,  for  which  it  was  believed  to  be  a  specific.  The  dose 
was  one  scruple.  The  geese  should  have  been  fed  on  ''  herba  cheli- 
donii."  Next  to  the  yellow  jaundice,  it  was  of  special  value  in  scurvy, 
taken  either  in  the  form  of  a  powder  or  a  decoction.  For  the  cure  of 
dropsy  it  was  the  main  ingredient  in  several  of  the  remedies  prescribed. 
It  was  also  the  principal  component  in  the  manufacture  of  **  aqua 
ophthalmica  Imperatoris  Maximiliani,"  to  prepare  which,  the  dung  of 
young  geese  was  gathered  in  the  months  of  April  and  May  (vol.  ii. 
p.  287). 

Stork-dung,  stercus  ciconiae.  Believed  to  be  potential  in  epilepsy 
and  diseases  of  the  same  type.  "  Stercus,  si  ex  aqua  hauritur,  comiti- 
alibus  aliisque  morbis  capitis  prodesse  credunt."  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  ii. 
p.  287.) 

The  laxative  properties  of  mouse-dung  were  extolled  by  Dr.  Jacob 
Augustine  Hunerwolf,  in  "  Ephemeridum  Physico-Medicarum,"  Leip- 
zig, 1694,  vol.  i.  p.  189. 

Rosiuus  Lentilius  relates  that  there  was  a  certain  old  hypochrondiac, 
of  fifty  or  more,  who,  in  order  to  ease  himself  of  an  obstinate  constipa- 
tion, for  more  than  a  month  drank  copious  draughts  of  his  own  urine, 
fresh  and  hot,  but  with  the  worst  results,  "  Per  mensem  circiter  urinam 
suam  statim  a  mictu  calentem  ipsa  matuta  hauriret."  —  (In  "  Ephem. 
Physico-Medicarum,"  Leipzig,  1694,  vol.  ii.  p.  169.) 

On  the  page  just  cited  and  those  immediately  following,  can  be  found 
some  ten  or  twelve  pages  of  fine  print,  quarto,  elucidative  of  the 
uses  of  the  human  excreta,  medicinally,  and  as  a  matter  of  morbid 
appetite. 

To  the  Ephemeridum,  Dr.  Lentilius  also  contributed  a  careful  re- 
sume of  all  that  was  at  that  time  known  of  the  medicinal  or  other  form 
of  the  internal  employment  of  the  human  exci'eta;  he  premised  his 
remarks  by  saying  that  while  some  persons  sent  to  foreign  countries 
and  ransacked  their  woods  and  forests  for  medicines,  there  were  others 
who  sought  their  remedies  nearer  home,  and  did  not  disdain  the  em- 
ployment of  the  vilest  excrements.  "  I  am  not  speaking  now,"  he  re- 
marks, "  of  the  excrements  of  animals,  but  of  human  ordure  and 
human  urine.  We  know,"  he  continues,  "  that  horse-dung  is  used  for 
the  cure  of  colic,  pig-dung  for  checking  internal  hemorrhages,  dog- 
dung  or  album  Grsecum  for  angina,  goose-dung  for  yellow  jaundice, 
peacock-dung  for  vertigo,  and  goat-dung,  in  Courland  beer,  for  malig- 
nant fevers.     The  Mexicans  used  human  ordure  as  an  antidote  asrainst 


312  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

serpent  bites  in  two-scruple  doses,  drunk  in  some  convenient  liquor : 
"  De  homerda  contra  venenatos  Mexicano  —  serpeutis  ictus  —  ad  3  ii. 
in  convenienti  liquore  hausta  "  (p.  1 70).  The  same  mixture  was  drunk 
by  the  Japanese,  as  a  remedy  against  the  wounds  made  by  poisoned 
weapons :  "  De  eadem  mixtura  sed  e  stei'core  proprio  confusa  contra 
telorum  venena  Japonensibus  pota."  Observe  that  in  this  last  case 
the  ordure  had  to  be  that  of  the  wounded  man  himself. 

Etmuller  recommends  its  use  in  expelling  from  the  system  the  virus 
of  "napelli"  wiiatever  that  may  have  been.  To  cure  the  plague,  the 
patient  was  to  consume  a  quantity  equal  in  size  to  a  filbert.  To  frus- 
trate the  effects  of  incantation  and  witchcraft,  it  had  to  be  drunk  in 
oil.  Used  in  the  same  manner,  it  was  supposed  to  be  of  use  in  expel- 
ling worms:  "De  eadem  mixtura,  sed  a  stercore  proprio,"  etc.,  as 
already  quoted.  "  De  stercore  humano,  sen  recente  seu  arido,  adsunto 
ad  expugnandum  napelli  virus,  etiam  a  nostratibus  commendato,  de 
quo  vid.  Etmuller,  etc.  ...  In  peste  fuganda  mane  ad  avellanas 
quantitatem  devoraudo,  ...  ad  morbos  e  fascino  ex  aceto  propinato 
...  ad  expellendos  vermes  eodem  modo  usurpato."  He  alludes  also 
to  "  Oletum  "  and  the  medicines  made  with  it,  as  an  ingredient ;  but 
says  he  will  leave  "  Zibethum  "  and  "  Occidental  Sulphur  "  to  Paracel- 
sus and  the  members  of  his  school.  He  quotes  Galen  as  recommending 
the  drinking  of  the  urine  of  a  stout,  healthy  boy,  as  a  preventive  of  the 
plague.  "  Urina  pueri  sani  bibita  .  .  .  preservans  apeste,"  quoting  Galen, 
lib.  X.  "De  Simp.  Med.  Fac."  A  draught  of  her  husband's  urine  was 
of  great  assistance  to  a  woman  in  uterine  troubles  :  "  Sic,  in  Bvctox^cl 
urinse  maritalis  haustum  concelebrant  alii."  The  urine  of  a  chaste  boy 
was  much  commended  by  many  writers  for  internal  use  in  drops}-, 
splenic  inflammation,  etc.  "  Sic  urinam  impolluti  pueri  quotidie  potum, 
esse  medicamentum  laudabile  et  prajsentaneum,  ad  lienis  morbos  et 
hydropem."  It  would  be  useless  to  quote  further  in  the  words  of  the 
original.  Lentilius  goes  on  to  say  that  a  potion  of  one's  own  iirine 
was  extolled  in  the  treatment  of  the  bites  of  snakes,  vi^ounds  by  deadly 
weapons,  incipient  dropsy  and  consumption. 

To  drink  one's  own  urine  for  the  space  of  three  days  was  a  sure  cure 
for  the  yellow  jaundice,  also  in  preserving  from  the  plague.  But  Von 
Helmont  was  of  the  opinion  that  in  this  last  case  its  virtues  were 
derived  from  the  fact  that  it  was  a  stimulant  and  served  to  keep  up 
the  spirits.  By  Etmuller,  its  use  was  strongly  recommended  in  the 
treatment  of  the  yellow  jaundice,  etc.  (citing  Etmuller).  It  was  like- 
wise highly  extolled  by  Avicenna. 


ORDURE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  313 

"We  are  next  treated  to  a  feast  of  big  words,  in  which  we  leurn  tliat 
on  account  of  its  "  nitrosity  "  and  "  volatility,"  it  was  regarded  as  a 
"detersive,"  and  "penetrative,"  while,  on  account  of  the  alkali  it  con- 
tained, it  was  a  neutralizer  of  the  "fermenting  acids,"  and  therefore 
applicable  in  cardialgia,  anorexia,  gout,  toothache,  colic,  yellow  jaun- 
dice, and  intermittent  fevers,  either  the  urine  "of  the  patient  himself 
or  that  of  a  wine-drinking  boy." 

Boyle,  the  eminent  philosopher,  is  quoted  as  saying  that,  in  his 
opinion,  the  virtues  of  human  urine,  as  a  medicine,  internally  and  ex- 
ternally, would  require  a  volume  by  themselves.  Boyle  is  also  credited 
with  having  published  a  tract  on  this  subject,  in  Leipzig,  1G92,  over 
the  signature  "B." 

Lentilius  devotes  a  number  of  pages  of  close,  logical  reasoning  to 
demonstrate  the  fallacy  of  supposing  that  human  excreta  can  be  of  any 
possible  utility  in  therapeutics.  According  to  his  opinion,  ]S'ature 
voided  them  from  the  body  because  the  body  had  no  further  use  for 
them ;  therefore,  their  re-absorption  could  scarcely  be  other  than 
deleterious ;  this  was  all  the  more  true  in  disease,  because  the  patient 
being  in  a  morbid  state,  that  which  he  ejected  could  by  no  process  of 
correct  reasoning  be  regarded  as  healthy.  This  argument,  although  of 
great  interest  and  value,  is  very  long  and  pertains  rather  to  the  history 
of  medicine  proper  than  to  this  essay. 

Lentilius  concludes  by  saying  that  no  more  cruel  threat  could  be 
made  than  that  of  Sennacherib  against  the  Jews  that  he  would  make 
them  eat  their  own  excrement  and  drink  the  water  which  bathed  his 
feet :  "  Quani  futurum  esse,  ut  quisquis  sua  stercora  voraturus,  et 
aquam  pedum  suorum  bibiturus  sit."  Esa.  36,  ver.  12.  "Vaemis- 
eris  segrotis,  quo  rumores  ad  uriniB  potum  rediit."  —  (In  "Ephem. 
Phys.  Medic."  Leipzig,  1694,  vol.  ii.  pp.  169  to  176,  inclusive;  the 
pages  are  quarto,  the  number  of  words  to  the  page  about  375.) 

Lentilius  has  either  stolen  bodily  from  PauUini,  or  anticipated  him ; 
he  has  all  of  Paullini's  facts,  but  seems,  in  addition,  to  have  been 
much  of  a  philosopher,  which  Paullini  was  not. 

Christian  Franz  Paullini's  "Filth  Pharmacy,"  Frankfort,  1696,  is 
better  known  than  any  other  of  the  works  cited,  being  in  German,  of 
small  size,  and  confining  itself  almost  exclusively  to  a  recapitulation  of 
diseases,  with  the  appropriate  excrementitious  curative  opposite  each. 

Six  different  editions  are  contained  in  the  Library  of  the  U.  S.  Army 
Medical  Museum,  in  Washington;  of  these,  that  of  Frankfort,  1696 
(268  pages,  duodecimo),  was  selected,  and  the  work  of  translation  en- 


314  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

trusted  to  Messrs.  Smith  and  Pratz  ;  being  perfectly  familiar  with  Eng- 
lish and  German,  their  interpretation,  made  slowly  and  carefuUj',  may 
be  relied  on  as  minutely  correct. 

Paulliui  has  done  nothing  beyond  collecting  his  ample  list  of  cases 
ill  which  the  human  and  animal  excreta  were  employed  in  the  treat- 
ment of  diseases ;  he  has  iu  no  instance  ventured  upon  an  explana- 
tion of  the  z'eason  for  such  use,  such  as  Etmuller  supplied. 

He  treats  of  the  employment  of  human  ordure  and  urine,  and  animal 
excreta,  in  the  following  diseases  :  headache,  insomnia,  vertigo,  demen- 
tia, melancholia,  mania,  gout,  convulsions,  palsy,  epilepsy,  sore  eyes, 
cataract,  ophthalmia,  ear  troubles,  bleeding  of  the  nose,  nasal  polypi, 
carious  teeth,  dropsy  of  the  head,  wens,  asthmatic  troubles,  coughs, 
spitting  of  blood,  consumption,  pleurisy,  fainting  spells,  diseases  of  the 
mammary  glands,  tumors,  colic,  abnormal  appetite,  worms,  hernia, 
sciatica,  ulceration  of  the  bowels,  constipation,  diarrhoea,  dysentery, 
obstructions  of  the  liver,  dropsy,  jaundice,  kidney  troubles,  gravel, 
stone,  retention  of  urine,  excessive  flow  of  urine,  impaired  virilitj', 
swelling  of  the  testicles,  uterine  displacements,  menstrual  troubles, 
sterility,  accidents  to  pregnant  women,  miscarriages,  difficult  labor, 
pains  after  childbirth,  gout  of  feet,  rheumatism,  fevers  of  all  kinds, 
poisons,  plague,  syphilitic  and  venereal  diseases,  abscesses,  sprains,  con- 
tusions, bruises,  wounds,  ring-worm,  felons,  itch,  freckles,  as  a  cosmetic, 
for  rash,  tetter,  loss  of  hair,  lice,  gangrene,  colds,  warts,  fissure  of  the 
rectum,  fistulas,  corns,  bunions,  love-potions,  and  to  baffle  witchcraft. 

For  headache,  pigeon-dung  was  used  internally,  and  the  dung  of  a 
red  cow  and  of  the  peacock,  externally. 

Insomnia,  donkey-dung,  internally ;  gout  and  pigeon  dung,  exter- 
nally.    Human  urine  was  also  used  for  the  same  purpose  (pp.  28,  29). 

Vertigo.     Pigeon,  peacock,  and  squirrel  dung,  all  used  internally. 

Dementia.     Donkey-dung,  externally. 

Melancholia.     Calf  or  ox  dung,  internally  ;  owl-dung,  externally. 

Mania.  Human  ordure,  internally ;  boy's  urine,  internally,  and  also 
owl's  and  chicken's  dung,  internally. 

Gout.  Boy's  urine,  externally,  and  owl's,  jenny's,  horse's,  cow's, 
deer's,  and  sow's  dung,  externally. 

Convulsions.     Peacock  and  horse  dung,  externally. 

Palsy.  Let  the  patient  wash  with  his  own  urine  or  that  of  a  young 
boy  (pp.  28,  29)  ;  administer  peacock's  or  horse's  dung  internally. 

For  the  cure  of  the  dread  disease,  epilepsy,  human  ordure  and  the 
urine  of  boys  were  administered  internally,  and  there  were  likewise  in- 


ORDURE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  315 

ternal  applications  of  the  dung  of  horses,  peacocks,  mice,  dogs,  black 
cows,  lions,  storks,  and  wild  hogs ;  no  external  applications  are  noted 
for  this  disease  (pp.  28,  29,  42,  43). 

Anotlier  remedy  for  epilepsy  was  to  take  the  excrements  of  a  fine, 
healthy  youth,  dry  them,  and  extract  the  oil  by  means  of  heat ;  rectify 
this  oil  and  take  inwardly  (pp.  42,  43). 

For  inflamed  and  running  eyes  make  a  collyrium  of  the  warm  urine 
of  young  boys,  mingled  with  other  ingredients.  Make  an  external  ap- 
plication of  boys'  urine,  or  of  the  dung  of  swallows,  pigeons,  cows, 
goats,  prairie  hens,  horses,  lizards,  doves.  There  was  no  internal  ad- 
ministration of  any  of  the  above  suggested. 

For  ophthalmic  troubles,  the  same  treatment  as  the  above. 

Cataract.  Make  an  external  application  of  human  ordure,  of  boy's 
urine,  or  of  the  dung  of  wolves,  green  lizards,  or  geese. 

Earache  or  ringing  in  the  ear,  or  abscesses.  Apply  the  urine  of 
young  boys  mixed  with  honey,  or  apply  fresh  human  urine. 

Other  ear  troubles.  External  application  of  boy's  urine  or  of  the 
patient's  own  urine  ;  external  application  of  the  dung  of  the  white 
goat,  or  pigeon's,  cat's,  deer's,  rabbit's,  jenny's,  wild  hog's  or  wolfs 
dung. 

Bleeding  at  the  nose.  External  application  of  dog's  urine,  of  horse 
urine,  or  of  the  dung  of  calf,  donkey,  hog,  cow,  horse,  camel,  or 
rabbit. 

Nasal  polypi.     Dung  of  dog  or  donkey,  externally. 

Toothache  or  carious  teeth.  One's  own  ordure,  or  the  dung  of 
wolf,  dog,  raven,  mouse,  or  horse,  in  all  cases  externally  (pp.  52, 
53). 

Toothache.  Apply  a  poultice  of  human  excrement,  mixed  with 
camomile-flowers,  to  the  cheek. 

Dropsy  of  the  head.     Take  boy's  urine  internally. 

Croup  and  throat  troubles  generally.  Boys'  urine,  both  internally 
and  externally ;  a  gargle  and  a  potion  of  one's  own  urine ;  and  both 
internal  and  external  applications  of  the  white  dung  of  dogs,  gathered 
in  July;  or  the  dung  of  geese,  pigeons,  eagles,  goats,  owls,  hens,  or 
wolves. 

Asthmatic  troubles.     Salts  of  urine  or  pigeon's  dung,  externally. 

Coiighs.  The  dung  of  dogs,  internalh',  or  the  dung  of  geese ;  the 
dung  of  ravens,  deer,  or  sparrows,  externally. 

Spitting  of  blood.  The  excreta  of  wild  sows,  doves,  sheep,  cows, 
horses,  mice,  dogs,  or  peacocks,  internally. 


316  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Consumption.  The  patient's  ordure,  internally ;  his  own  or  a  boy's 
urine,  or  mice-dung,  internally  (pp.  74,  75). 

Another  remedy  for  consumption  was  to  let  the  patient  drink  a  mix- 
ture of  his  own  urine  beaten  up  with  fresh  egg  ;  repeat  for  several 
successive  mornings  ;  also,  let  him  eat  his  own  excrement  (pp.  74, 
7G). 

For  pleurisy,  we  read  that  there  was  an  external  application  of  the 
patient's  own  urine,  or  that  the  dung  of  donkeys,  horses,  stallions, 
mares,  hens,  pigeons,  and  dogs  was  given  internally. 

Fainting-spells.  Human  ordure,  externally ;  one's  own  urine,  inter- 
nally ;  cow-urine  or  the  dung  of  horses,  sheep,  or  birds,  externally 

Diseases  of  the  mammary  glands.  The  dung  of  cows  or  mice,  inter- 
nally, and  also  an  external  application  of  that  of  oxen,  goats,  hogs,  dogs, 
cows,  or  pigeons. 

Cancer  of  the  breast.  The  patient's  own  ordure  internally,  with  ex- 
ternal applications  of  the  dung  of  geese,  cows,  goats,  or  rabbits. 

Wens.  External  applications  of  the  dung  of  cows,  rats,  mice,  goats, 
sheep,  geese,  pigeons,  or  jennies. 

Colic.  Human  ordure,  internally;  "Eau  de  Millefleurs,"  internally 
(we  know  that  "Eau  de  Millefleurs"  was  itself  a  composition  of  cow- 
dung)  ;  take  bees  internally  (the  only  instance  recorded  of  such  a 
use  of  this  insect),  or  the  dung  of  horses,  cats,  swallows,  or  chickens, 
externally. 

A  youth  in  Leyden  fell  madly  in  love  with  a  young  girl,  but  could 
not  get  the  consent  of  his  parents  to  marry  her.  He  was  seized  with 
a  violent  fever  and  constipation.  In  this  desperate  condition  he  im- 
agined that  a  drink  of  fresh  urine  from  his  beloved  would  benefit  him  ; 
he  accordingly  wrote  to  her,  begging  her  to  satisfy  his  longing,  which 
she  accordinglj'-  granted,  and  after  drinking  of  the  beverage  to  his 
heart's  content,  he  found  immediate  relief  (whethpr  from  the  constipa- 
tion or  the  passion  Paullini  neglects  to  state).  —  (Paullini,  pp.  106, 
107.) 

Abnormal  appetite.  The  same  remedies  as  are  enumerated  for 
colic,  q.  v. 

Worms.  The  patient's  own  urine,  internally  ;  the  dung  of  horses  or 
cows  or  hogs,  internally. 

Hernia.     Rabbit-dung,  internally. 

Sciatica.  External  application  of  the  dung  of  goats,  pigeons,  horses, 
or  chickens. 

Constipation.     Human  ordure,  internally  ;  human  urine,  internally  ; 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  317 

or  the  excreta  of  sows,  mice,  chickens,  geese,  sparrows,  magpies, 
or  pigeons  internally. 

Diarrhoea.  Dog-dung,  internally;  sow,  donkey,  or  cow  dung, 
externally. 

Dysentery.  The  patient's  own  ordure  or  that  of  a  boy,  internally; 
human  urine,  internally;  or  the  excreta  of  dogs,  horses,  hogs,  crows, 
rabbits,  donkeys,  mules,  or  elephants,  internally. 

Obstructions  of  the  liver.  Salts  of  urine,  internally  ;  or  the  dung  of 
geese,  swallows,  or  deer,  internally. 

Dropsy.  Human  ordure,  internally  ;  the  patient's  own  urine  or  that 
of  a  boy,  internally  ;  or  external  applications  of  dung  of  geese,  chickens, 
goats,  donkeys,  dogs,  deer,  horses,  or  sheep,  internally. 

Kidney  troubles.  Human  urine,  both  internally  and  externally ; 
goose-dung,  internally  ;  sheep-dung,  externally ;  donkey  or  deer  dung, 
internally. 

Kidney  diseases,  stone  in  the  bladder.  Take  internally  human  urine 
or  water,  distilled  over  human  ordure,  or  the  dried  catamenia  of 
women,  or  the  scrapings  of  chamber-pots  taken  in  brandy.  —  (Paullini, 
pp.  142,  143.) 

Gravel.  The  patient's  own  urine,  internally ;  or  the  dung  of 
pigeons,  rats,  chickens,  mice,  wild  hogs,  or  donkeys,  both  internally  and 
externally. 

Excessive  urination.  The  dung  of  goats,  mice,  or  wild  hog, 
internally. 

Difficult  urination.  The  urine  of  a  girl,  internally  ;  the  urine  of  the 
patient,  both  internally  and  externally ;  the  dung  of  sparrows,  inter- 
nally; or  the  dung  of  donkeys,  goats,  chickens,  geese,  roosters,  or 
pigeons,  externally. 

Impaired  virility  and  swelling  of  the  testicles.  The  dung  of  prairie 
hens,  or  that  of  sparrows,  internally;  or  the  dung  of  rabbits,  bulls, 
cows,  or  goats,  externally. 

Uterine  displacements.  Human  ordure,  internally  ;  the  dung  of  fal- 
cons, horses,  or  bulls,  internally,  or  the  dung  of  sows,  donkeys,  or  sheep. 
Human  excrement  was  applied  outwardly  in  treatment  of  falling  of  the 
womb  ;  this  was  also  considered  a  good  method  of  treating  inflamma- 
tion of  the  vagina  ;  stale  urine  and  the  steam  of  old  socks,  and  asses' 
dung,  was  applied  outwardly.  The  scrapings  of  chamber  vessels  was 
taken  inwardly,  mixed  with  other  ingredients  (pp.  154,  155). 

For  menstrual  troubles  menstrual  blood  was  administered  internally  ; 
the  urine  of  boys,  internally ;   the  excreta  of  donkeys  and  rabbits, 


318  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

both  internally  and  externally ;  and  those  of  hogs,  rats,  and  horses, 
externally. 

For  cessation  of  the  menses.  Take  internally  pulverized  menses 
dried,  and  wear  a  chemise  smeared  with  human  blood  (most  probably 
the  chemise  of  a  woman  who  had  been  more  fortunate  in  her  purga- 
tion) ;  or  boil  boys'  urine  and  garlic  together,  and  inhale  the  steam 
(p.  158). 

Gout,  rheumatism.  The  patient's  own  urine,  both  internally  and 
externally ;  the  urine  of  boys,  externally  ;  the  dung  of  mice  or  rab- 
bits, internally ;  the  excreta  of  cows,  bulls,  calves,  donkeys,  pigeons, 
peacocks,  storks,  dogs,  goats,  or  wild  hogs,  externally. 

Another  remedy  for  gout  and  rheumatism  was  the  excreta  of  chick- 
ens, dogs,  or  cocks,  internally. 

Tertiary  fever.  Human  ordure  and  urine,  internally  ;  the  excreta 
of  sows,  donkeys,  chickens,  and  swallows,  and  the  white  dung  of  dogs, 
internally. 

Quaternary  fever.  The  ordure  of  infants,  internally ;  the  urine  of 
an  old  woman,  mixed  with  donkey-dung,  externally  \  the  dung  of  geese 
gathered  in  j\Iay,  of  dogs,  of  sparrows,  chickens,  and  sheep,  internally ; 
and  cat-dung,  externally. 

Malignant  fevers.  The  urine  of  the  patient,  internally ;  the  urine 
of  a  jenny,  internall}' ;  the  dung  of  a  red  cow,  of  a  reindeer,  horse, 
sheep,  or  goat,  internally;  no  external  applications  in  this  case. 

Antidotes  for  poisons.  Human  ordure  internally,  and  human  urine 
both  internally  and  externally  ;  the  excreta  of  hogs,  ducks,  swallows, 
goats,  calves,  or  chickens,  internally ;  of  pigeons,  cows,  sheep,  donkeys, 
and  horses,  externally. 

Plague.  Human  ordure  and  urine,  internally  ;  bull-dung,  internally ; 
the  dung  of  cows,  chickens,  or  pigeons,  externally. 

Syphilis  and  venereal  diseases.  Human  urine,  internally,  also  ex- 
ternally ;  and  the  excreta  of  horses  and  dogs,  externally. 

Abscesses  and  sprains.  The  urine  of  boys,  externally  ;  the  excreta 
of  cows,  goats,  dogs,  pigeons,  chickens,  camels,  geese,  externally  ;  or  of 
the  wild  hog,  both  internally  and  externally. 

Boils.  Human  ordure  and  urine,  externally  ;  the  dung  of  chickens, 
pigeons,  goats,  dogs,  cows,  bulls,  sheep,  or  foxes,  externally. 

"Wounds.  Human  ordure  and  urine,  externally  ;  the  excreta  of  dogs 
and  goats,  internally ;  or  of  cows,  pigeons,  chickens,  donkeys,  and 
sheep,  externally. 

Ringworm,  felons.     Human  ordure,  externally ;  menstrual  blood, 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  319 

externally ;   the  excreta  of  geese,  cows,  sows,  cats,  sheep,  goats,   or 
chickens,  exterually. 

Itch,  freckles,  rash,  tetter,  etc.  Geese-dung,  internally;  the  excreta 
of  donkeys,  dogs,  chickens,  crocodiles,  foxes,  or  pigeons,  externally. 

Loss  of  hair,  lice.  Human  urine,  externally  ;  the  excreta  of  pigeons, 
cats,  rats,  mice,  swallows,  geese,  rabbits,  or  goats,  externally. 

Gangrene.  The  urine  of  a  virgin,  externally ;  the  white  dung  of 
chickens,  or  horse-dung,  externally. 

Colds.  Human  ordure  and  urine,  externally ;  the  excreta  of  sheep, 
cows,  bulls,  chickens,  hogs,  pigeons,  or  horses,  externally. 

Warts.  The  patients  own  urine,  externally ;  the  excreta  of  dogs, 
sheep,  camels,  goats,  cows,  calves,  or  of  a  black  dog,  externally. 

Fissure  of  the  rectum,  bunions,  coi'ns.  The  excreta  of  dogs,  hogs, 
sheep,  pigeons,  chickens,  goats,  mice,  or  of  cows,  gathered  in  May, 
externally. 

Fistula.  Human  ordure,  externally ;  the  dung  of  dogs  and  mice, 
internally. 

Yellow  jaundice.  Take  internally  the  oil  of  human  excrements,  or 
drink  human  urine  for  nine  days  (pp.  1 32,  1 33). 

Bloody  flux.  Human  excrements  dried,  taken  internally,  are  of  gi*eat 
benefit  (pp.  108,  109). 

Insomnia.     Take  the  "  Spiritus  Urinae  "  internally. 

Fits  or  spasms.  Take  the  urine  of  young  boys  internally  (pp.  28 
and  29.) 

"  Take  an  old  rusty  piece  of  iron,  be  it  a  horse-shoe  or  anything 
else ;  lay  it  on  the  fire  until  it  be  red-hot ;  then  take  it  out  of  the  fire 
and  let  the  patient  make  water  upon  it  and  take  the  fume  thereof  at 
his  nose  and  mouth,  using  this  three  days  together,  and  it  will  cure 
him  (of  yellow  jaundice)."  —  ("The  Poor  Man's  Physician,"  John 
Moncrief,  Edinburgh,  1716,  p.   174.) 

"  For  running  ulcers  of  the  head  .  .  .  bathe  the  whole  head  with 
old  urine."  —  (Idem,  p.  66.) 

"To  provoke  flow  of  urine  .  .  .  neat's  dung,  mixt  with  honey, 
made  hot,  applied  to  the  share  bone." — (Idem,  p.  133.) 

For  stone  in  bladder,  "mouce-dung  drunk."  —  (Idem,  p.  134.) 

"The  dung,  flesh,  and  haire  of  a  hare  drunk."  — (Idem,  p.  131.) 

**  Goat's-dung  drunk  .  .  .  for  the  space  of  three  days."  (Jaundice.) 
—  (Idem,  p.  116.) 

"  Goat's-dung,  if  drunk,  brought  back  the  catamenia." — (Idem, 
p.  141.) 


320  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"Goose  and  hen  dung,  drunk  with  the  best  wine,  miraculously 
cureth  sudden  sutfocations  of  the  mother."  —  (Idem,  p.   144.) 

"  For  a  perverse  or  froward  mother  (i.  e.,  womb),  apply  stinking 
smells  to  the  privities,  and  sweet  smells  to  the  nose."  —  (Idem, 
pp.   144,   151.) 

"  For  the  squinsy  .  .  .  take  the  dung  of  a  hog,  newly  made  and  as 
hot   as   you   can    get  it,  .  .  .  apply  to   the   place,  and   it   cureth." 

—  (Idem,  p.  172.) 

"For  all  imposthemes  .  .  .  the  dung  of  a  goose  which  had  first 
fasted  three  days,  and  then  fed  on  an  eel  before  being  killed,"  was 
applied  externally.  —  (Idem,  p.   180.) 

"  For  swellings  behind  the  ears,  .  .  .  goat-dung,  boiled,"  was  ap- 
plied as  a  plaster,  —  (Idem,  p.  84.) 

For  boils,  carbuncles,  etc.,  "an  emplaister  made  of  the  dung  of  a 
peacock  cureth  faithfully,"  —  (Idem,  p.   1G3.) 

"For  the  cure  of  fistula,  '  man's-dung  and  pepper'  were  to  be  ap- 
plied externally;  goat's-dung  externally  ;  dove's-dung  was  to  be  drunk 
in  goat's-milk  ;  the  juice  of  cow-dung,  in  wine,  was  to  be  cast  into  the 
fistula,  and  a  plaster  of  the  same  was  to  be  applied." — (Idem, 
pp.  165,  166.) 

"  Qui  mane  jejune,  per  novem  dies,  bibit  propriam  urinam  non  pati- 
etur  epilepsiam,  paralysim,  nee  colicam,  et  qui  bibit  propriam  urinam 
sanabitur  a  sumpto  veneno." —  (Idem,  pp.  169,  170.) 

"  D'apres  le  t^moignage  de  Charles  Lancilotti,  I'acqua  di  stereo 
humane  pigliata  in  una  calante  por  lo  spation  di  nuove  gionii  sana 
quelH   ehe  patiscono  il  male  caduco."     (Voyez  Guida  alia  Chimica.) 

—  ("Bib.  Scatalogica,"  p.  29.) 

Schurig's  "  Chylologia,"  published  in  Dresden,  1725,  contains  cita- 
tions from  nearly  seven  hundred  authorities.  As  these  are  nearly  all 
of  very  ancient  date,  and  only  in  a  few  cases  accessible  to  scholars 
restricted  to  American  libraries,  this  learned  work  of  Schurig  becomes 
all  the  more  valuable  to  such  as  desire  to  study  intelligently  and 
profoundly  this  subject  of  the  use  of  human  and  animal  excreta  in 
religious  rites  or  in  religious  medicine. 

Some  of  the  writers  quoted  by  Schurig  favor,  others  oppose  the 
medical  employment  of  the  human  excretions.  Among  those  in  favor 
of  it,  according  to  him,  may  be  seen  the  names  of  Galen  and  Dioscor- 
ides.  In  Schurig's  day  there  seems  to  have  been  much  opposition 
developing,  especially  when  other  remedies  were  available ;  although 
Schurig  says  that  the  Dutch  soldiers  returning  from  the  Indies  spoke 


ORDURE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  321 

iu  praise  of  what  they  had  seen  there  of  the  use  of  such  medicaments. 
Among  European  practitioners,  human  ordure  was  employed  alone, 
mixed  with  water  or  other  ingredients,  or  a  water  and  an  oil  were 
distilled  from  it. 

It  would  be  a  useless  task  to  repeat  the  names  of  all  the  authorities 
mentioned  by  this  learned  German,  or  to  give  in  detail  all  the  pre- 
scriptions in  which  the  alvine  dejecta  figure  as  components.  Their 
insertion  here  would  add  nothing  to  the  value  of  these  notes,  as  they 
are  strictly  pharmaceutical  in  their  spirit ;  it  may,  however,  be  of 
some  interest  to  the  student  to  learn  just  what  diseases  were  supposed 
to  be  amenable  to  this  course  of  treatment,  and  just  how  the  curatives 
were  to  be  administered. 

For  angina  pectoris,  the  ordure  passed  by  a  young  boy  after  eating 
lupines,  to  be  taken  internally  (p.  758).  For  the  same  disease  there 
were  other  recipes  for  ordure  in  pills,  plasters,  and  decoctions,  as  well 
as  for  electuaries  of  ordure,  to  be  blended  with  honey  (p.  756). 

For  bringing  boils,  ulcers,  etc.,  to  a  head,  for  sprains,  luxations, 
etc.,  a  poultice  of  human  oi'dure,  applied  hot,  was  considered  the  best 
specific  (p.  757). 

For  rheumatic  gout,  a  hot  poultice  of  human  ordure  was  considered 
of  value  (p.  757). 

Renal  calculi.  "  Aqua  ex  stercore  distillata"  was  given  internally 
(p.  757).  For  cancers  and  malign  ulcers,  human  ordure  was  used  as 
a  local  poultice ;  also  given  internally,  in  pills  or  powders.  Pope 
Benedict  was  cured  of  a  cancer  by  this  treatment  (pp.  758,  759). 

Epilepsy.  Peacock-dung  was  used  internally  in  conjunction  with 
human  ordure  (p.  762). 

Erysipelas  was  treated  with  a  poultice  of  human  ordure  (p.  762). 
"  Oleum  ex  stercore  distillatum  "  was  also  given  internally  (p.  762). 

Cicatrices,  small-pox  pustules.  Bathe  with  "  aqua  ex  stercore  dis- 
tillata" (p.  760). 

Gangrene,  cured  by  application  of  warm  ordure  and  urine  (p.  763). 

Dropsy;  use  *'aqua  ex  stercore  distillata"  internally  (p.  764). 

Yellow  jaundice,  by  human  ordure  drunk  in  wine  (p.  764).  Here 
he  quotes  Paullini,  and  others  with  whom  we  are  already  familiar. 

Piles.  Plaster  of  human  ordure  (p.  766).  The  same  method  of 
treatment  for  tumors  (p.  777). 

Ping- worm  and  other  skin  diseases.  Use  "  oleuta  ex  stercore " 
internally  (p.  766). 

21 


322  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

Inflammation  of  the  breasts  of  young  mothers;  local  application 
of  human  ordure  (p.  767). 

Burns  and  scalds.  "Aqua  ex  stercore"  locally  (p.  760).  Inflam- 
mations, ditto  (p.  766). 

Dysentery.  "Aqua  ex  stercore"  internally  (p.  761),  quoting 
Paullini. 

Empyematis.     "Oleum  ex  stercore,"  internally  (p.  761). 

Epilepsy.  "  Cured  and  prevented  by  "  excrement,  iufantis,"  inter- 
nally (p.  761). 

For  all  fevers.  Ordure,  mixed  with  honey,  intenially,  quoting 
Paullini  (pp.  762,  763). 

Fistula  in  ano  or  in  lachryma.  Local  application  of  human  ordure 
(p.  763). 

Birth-marks  were  effaced  by  a  plaster  of  human  ordure,  or  of  me- 
conium (p.  771). 

Ophthalmia,  cataract,  etc.  Human  ordure,  applied  as  a  plaster. 
Also,  "aqua  ex  stercore  distillata,"  internally  (p.  771). 

Toothache.  Plaster  of  human  ordure,  mixed  with  powdered  cham- 
omile flowers,  quoting  Paullini  (p.  772). 

(Edema.     Plaster  of  human  ordure  and  of  cow-dung  (p.  772). 

Felons.  Plaster  of  human  ordure.  Also,  one  of  the  same,  mixed 
with  assafoetida,  quoting  Paullini  (p.  772). 

Hysteria.     Human  ordure,  drunk  in  wine  (p.  773). 

Bites  of  mad  dogs,  serpents,  and  all  wild  animals.  Ordure,  or 
"oleum  ex  stercore  distillatum,"  or  "aqua  ex  stercore  distillata,"  in- 
ternally (pp.  767,  768). 

In  the  island  of  Manilla,  human  ordure  was  held  in  such  high  esti- 
mation as  a  remedy  for  the  cure  of  the  bites  of  all  venomous  animals, 
that  it  was  carried  fresh,  or  dessicated,  in  little  pyxes  or  pouches  sus- 
pended from  the  neck,  ready  for  instant  use.  An  example  is  given, 
on  the  authority  of  a  Franciscan  friar,  for  years  a  missionaiy  in  that 
country,  of  a  man  so  bitten,  and  so  near  death  that  he  could  not  open 
his  mouth,  whose  teeth  were  pried  asunder,  and  this  remedy  inserted. 
He  recovered  immediately. 

Human  ordure  was  also  used  internally,  in  Mexico,  for  the  cure 
of  serpent  bites,  as  we  have  learned  previously  from  other  sources, 
(p.  767.) 

For  worms  in  the  head.  "  Oleum  ex  stercore  distillatum,"  applied 
locally  (p.  777). 

Poisons.     Human  ordure,  internally  (pp.  777,  778). 


ORDURE   AND  URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  323 

For  wounds  occasioned  by  poisoned  weapons,  in  the  island  of  Ma- 
cassar, human  ordure  was  administered  internally,  until  vomiting  was 
induced.  The  same  treatment  was  observed  in  Armenia,  while  in 
Celebes  it  was  the  recognized  antidote  against  vegetable  poisons, 
quoting  Paullini  (pp.  778,  779). 

Plague.  Human  ordure  and  human  urine  were  mixed  together, 
and  taken  internally,  to  cure  or  prevent  the  plague.  Human  ordure 
was  also  taken  alone,  in  the  form  of  pills,  and  applied  to  plague  buboes 
as  a  plaster.  Schurig  says  he  personally  knew  a  certain  clergyman  in 
Dresden,  in  1680,  who  took  such  pills  with  good  effect  (p.  775). 

Scabs  and  tetter,  local  applications  of  "oleum  ex  stercore  distil." 
(p.  776). 

Pleurisy,  "01.  ex  sterc.  dist.,"  internally  (p.  774). 

Gout.  Human  ordure  as  a  plaster,  and  also  internally  (p.  775)  ;  here 
he  again  cites  Paullini,  among  others  not  known  to  us. 

SCHURIG's     ideas    regarding    the    use    in    medicine    of     the     EGEST.E 

OF     ANIMALS. 

Schurig  devotes  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  his  work  to  a  treatise  "De 
Stercoribus  Brutorum."  It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  much  into  detail 
upon  this  point ;  it  will  be  sufficient  to  give  only  a  small  number  of 
the  recipes,  with  notes  upon  the  manner  of  administering,  and,  where 
possible,  the  opinions  expressed  in  regard  to  their  efficacy. 

From  these  we  may  be  enabled  to  form  some  idea  of  the  line  of  medi- 
cal thought  of  the  ancient  practitioners. 

Beginning  with  goose-dung,  we  find  it  commended  as  warm  and 
drying  in  its  effects ;  an  aperient  and  endowed  with  power  over  the 
menses ;  also  over  the  after-birth  and  urine ;  and  hence  of  value  in 
jaundice,  scurvy,  and  dropsy.  It  was  also  employed  in  many  other 
diseases,  principally  in  fevers,  in  whooping-cough,  in  cachexy,  liver 
troubles,  and  when  applied  externally  as  a  plaster,  was  of  such  value 
in  the  treatment  of  sore  eyes  that  the  Emperor  Maximilian  resorted 
to  its  use  with  the  greatest  advantage  ;  again,  applied  as  a  plaster,  it 
was  used  in  angina  and  in  mammary  cancer.  The  dung  of  young 
geese  was  regarded  as  the  best,  and  it  should  be  gathered  when  possi- 
ble in  the  early  spring,  preferably  in  the  month  of  March,  while 
still  "  green,"  on  the  meadows ;  most  of  the  old  prescriptions  insist 
upon  this,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  sample  given  in  this  paragraph. 

The  dose  of  the  dried  powder  was  from  half  a  dram  to  a  full  dram. 


324  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

find  it  was  administered  in  wine,  or  mixed  with  cinnamon  and  sugar. 
It  was  frequently  combined  with  hen-dung,  or  dihited  with  the 
urine  of  she-goats  or  he-calves.  Some  practitioners  doubted  whether 
it  was  superior  to  dove-dung  for  the  same  diseases.  When  used  in 
whooping-cough  or  throat  swellings,  it  was  placed  under  the  tongue 
of  the  patient.  The  following  are  the  words  with  which  Schurig  begins 
his  panegyric  upon  its  virtues  :  — 

"  Calefacit  et  siccat  veheraenter  ;  incidit,  aperit ;  menses,  secundinas, 
et  urinas  potenter  movet ;  hinc  maxirai  usus  est  in  morbo  regio,  scor- 
buto,  et  hydrope." 
R: 

Stercor.  Anserin.  vera.  temp,  collect,  et  in  Sole  exsic. 

Pull.  Gallinac.  —  ana.  3i. 

Absinth.  9ii. 

Cinnamoni.  Qi. 

Sacchar.  §ij.  — M.  ft.  Pul v.  subtil iss. 

Asses'  dung  was  considered  by  Schurig  to  be  an  especially  good 
remedy  in  all  diseases  of  hemorrhage.  *'  Singulare  remedium  contra 
quamvis  haemorrhagias  "  (p.  800) ;  but  it  had  to  be  collected  in  the 
month  of  May  ;  "  Stercus  asininum  in  Majo  collectum."  It  was  to  be 
taken  in  doses  of  one  or  more  drachms,  or  only  the  juice  squeezed  from 
it  into  some  medicinal  water. 

Dried  in  the  sun,  or  in  a  warm  place,  it  was  good  for  bleeding  at  the 
nose ;  "  ad  solera  vel  in  loco  calido  exsiccetnr  et  fiat  pulvis  qui  per 
nares  attractus  subito  illarum  haemorrhagias  compescit."  It  was  re- 
garded as  an  infallible  remedy  for  restraining  an  excessive  menstrual 
flow.  "  Infallibile  remedium  ad  constringendum  flnxum  menstruum 
esse  stercus  asininum  .  .  .  asserit  Johannes  Petrus  Albrechtus." 

This  dung  was  also  in  great  vogue  in  all  cases  of  uterine  inflamma- 
tion, applied  locally  as  a  plaster.  It  was  administered  both  internally 
and  externally  for  gout  of  the  feet,  and  used  as  a  component  of  a 
plaster  for  dropsy.  It  was  given  internally  for  colic.  Collected  in  the 
month  of  May,  it  was  administered  internally  to  dissolve  calculi. 
"  Stercus  bubulum  mense  Majo  collectum  miram  prpcbet  aquam  adver- 
8US  Calculos,  quos  solvit  et  una  urinam  movet,  quam  nigram  prima  die 
pellit,  calculis  vehementer  attritis.  H?ec  aqua  in  ofiicinis  vocatur  om- 
nium florum."  This  water,  known  ofiicinally  as  "  water  of  all-flowers," 
was  used  in  attacks  of  plague,  and  in  cases  of  gangrene,  inflammation, 
rheumatism,  etc. ;  also  in  dropsy  and  in  cancerous  ulcers  (p.  800 
et  seq.). 


ORDURE  AND   URINE   IN  MEDICINE.  325 

Schurig  devotes  considerable  space  to  the  dung  of  dogs,  called  by 
some  "  Flowers  of  Melampius,"  and  by  others  by  the  "  more  honest 
name  of  album  Graecum."  "Stercus  caninum,  quod  nonnulli  flores 
Melampi,  pharmacopoei  autem  bouestiore  nomine  album  Graecum  vo- 
cunt  (to  differentiate  it  from  the  black,  which  was  the  dung  of  mice), 
ad  differentiam  nigri,  quod  est  muscerda"  (p.  803). 

He  believed  that  it  was  in  its  effects  "  drying,  cleansing,  solvent, 
an  aperient,  a  dissipater  of  swellings,  such  as  carbuncles,  a  solver  of 
ulcers,  —  hence  useful  in  dysentery,  in  epilepsy,  colic,  and  such  com- 
plaints, as  well  as  in  angina,  guttse,  malignant  ulcers,  hard  tumors, 
dropsy,  warts,  etc."  "  Siccat,  abstergit,  discutit,  aperit,  apostemata 
rumpit,  exulceratione  abstergit,  hiuc  utile  est  in  Dyseuteria,  quin  etiam 
in  Epilepsia,  dolore  colico,  et  similibus ; "  also  "  in  anginee,  gutturi,  ul- 
ceribus  malignis,  tumores  duros,  hydropicas,  veiTucas,  etc."  Also  in 
fistulas,  inflammation  of  the  tonsils,  etc.  It  was  applied  externally 
to  malignant  ulcers  by  being  sprinkled  upon  them,  or  as  a  plaster  ; 
applied  also  as  a  plaster  in  dropsy.  It  was  used  in  combination  with 
the  dung  of  swallows  (*'  stercus  hirundinum  "),  or  of  owls  ("  noctuse  ") 
Used  as  a  gargle  in  throat  trouble  (pp.  803-807). 

"  Album  Grsecum  "  was  considered  best  when  obtained  from  "  white  " 
dogs,  as  they  were  supposed  to  have  the  soundest  constitutions.  This 
was  especially  the  case  in  the  treatment  of  epilepsy  (p.  80).  Here  we 
have  a  very  decided  trace  of  "  Color  Symbolism," 

"  Album  Grsecum  "  was  taken,  preferentially,  from  dogs  which,  for 
at  least  three  days  previously,  had  been  nourished  on  hard  bones,  with 
the  least  possible  amount  of  water  to  drink  ;  such  dung  was  hard,  white, 
and  of  faint  odor,  "  durum,  album,  nee  graviter  olet."  Some  of  the 
prescriptions  call  for  the  dung  of  a  fasting  dog ;  "stercum  canis  per 
jejunium  emaciati  "  (p.  806). 

Schurig  tells  us  that  the  dung  of  the  goat  was  used  both  internally 
and  externally  in  medicine.  It  was  believed  to  be  efficacious  in  the 
expulsion  of  calculi,  in  the  reduction  of  hard  tumors,  in  the  dissipation 
of  tetter,  ring- worm,  scald,  leprosy,  abscesses  behind  the  ears,  bites  of 
serpents  and  other  wild  animals,  in  the  restriction  of  excessive  cata- 
menial  flow,  etc.  It  was  applied  as  a  plaster  in  the  treatment  of  tu- 
mors in  the  limbs,  swellings  of  the  testicles,  in  gout,  cedema,  cancer, 
inflammatory  rheumatism,  carbuncles,  atrophy  of  the  muscles,  tumors 
in  the  mammse,  etc.  But  when  made  into  a  plaster,  was  frequently 
mixed  with  the  patient's  own  urine  (p.  809). 

Schurig  pronounces  it  a  rubefacient ;  it  was  of  use  in  alleviating 


326  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

rheumatic  pains,  headache,  vertigo,  pains  in  side,  shoulders,  brain,  and 
loins,  colic,  apoplexy,  lethargy  ;  it  was  supposed  to  be  able  to  dissolve 
scrofulous  and  all  other  tumors,  and  was  beneficial  in  the  treatment  of 
gout ;  used  internally,  it  expelled  dropsical  water  through  the  urine 
and  also  dissolved  calculi ;  as  a  plaster,  it  was  used  in  the  cure  of  the 
bites  of  mad  dogs ;  likewise  for  scald  head  ;  internally,  the  Austrian 
midwives  employed  it  in  the  treatment  of  hysteria  ;  while,  through- 
out Germany,  it  was  administered  in  cases  of  suppression  of  the  menses 
(p.  809  €t  seq.). 

As  to  horse-dung,  Schurig  has  to  say  that  either  it  or  the  juice 
extracted  from  it  was  drunk  to  aid  in  easing  the  pains  of  colic,  to  assist 
in  the  expulsion  of  the  placenta,  or  of  a  dead  foetus,  or  in  cases  of  stran- 
gulation of  the  uterus  ;  externally,  it  was  believed  to  be  serviceable  in 
restraining  eruptions  of  the  blood.  To  be  of  the  greatest  medicinal 
value,  this  dung  should  be  taken  from  a  stallion  fed  on  oats.  It  was 
regarded  as  of  great  value  in  developing  small-pox  pustules  upon  women 
and  children  (p.  812  et  seq.). 

A  rustic  remedy  which  seems  to  have  had  a  wide  dissemination,  for 
the  alleviation  of  the  cramp-colic,  was  composed  of  the  juice  expressed 
from  horse-dung,  mixed  with  warm  beer,  taken  internally,  while  at  the 
same  time  there  was  applied  to  the  region  of  the  umbilicus  a  plas- 
ter of  warm  horse-dung  and  hot  ashes  ;  such  a  plaster  was  employed 
in  the  cure  of  pleurisy  among  the  English.  In  the  same  disease  a 
mixture  of  warm  horse-dung  and  beer  was  taken  both  internally  and 
externally. 

Cat-dung,  in  wine,  formed  the  remedy  in  cases  of  vertigo  and  epi- 
lepsy. While  its  use  was  recommended  principally  in  external  appli- 
cations, there  were  not  wanting  those  who  relied  upon  it  mainly  in 
internal  application.  It  was  reputed  to  possess  especial  efficacy  in 
loss  of  hair,  and  supposed  to  be  serviceable  in  preventing  baldness, 
applied  as  an  unguent.  Administered  internally,  it  suppi-essed  immod- 
erate menstrual  flow.  For  the  cure  of  felons,  which  so  many  in  those 
days  believed  to  be  occasioned  by  a  small  worm,  it  was  of  certain  effi- 
cacy, if  bound  round  the  afflicted  thumb  or  finger.  Paullini  is  quoted 
as  having  had  personal  experience  with  felons  thus  cured.  But  Paul- 
lini himself  was  of  opinion  that  the  dung  of  the  goose  was  of  equal 
value  with  that  of  the  cat  in  this  case  (p.  815). 

Hen-dung  was  recommended  for  use  in  burns.  It  was  regarded  as 
beneficial  against  magic  philters,  "in  specie  ex  sanguine  menstruo 
foemineo."     It  was  considered  good  for  all  those  ailments  for  which 


ORDURE   AND   URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  327 

dove-dung  was  prescribed,  but  was  not  quite  so  efficacious.  It  was  ex- 
cellent for  colic,  for  uterine  pangs,  yellow  jaundice,  calculus,  suppres- 
sion of  urine,  for  all  pains  in  the  bowels,  for  strangling  of  the  womb 
and  pains  therein,  for  poison,  witchcraft,  for  seat-worms,  etc.  Exter- 
nally, it  was  applied  for  all  sores  in  the  eyes,  ulcers,  warts,  cicatrices, 
piles,  pains  in  the  feet  and  arms  (pp.  816,  817). 

Swallow-dung  is  mentioned  as  of  internal  and  external  application. 
It  was  regarded  of  great  efficacy  in  the  treatment  of  mad-dog  bites, 
quarternary  fevers,  colic,  inflammation  of  the  kidneys,  etc.  It  was  ap- 
plied as  a  plaster  in  cases  of  headache,  angina,  inflammation  of  the  ton- 
sils, and  as  a  suppository  in  relaxation  of  the  rectum.  Its  efficacy  was 
conceded  in  dyeing  the  hair,  being  invaluable  when  used  frequently  as 
an  unguent.  Etmuller  is  quoted  as  expressing  the  opinion  that  they 
owe  their  action  to  the  presence  of  "  Armoniacal "  salts.  The  swallow's 
nest,  with  all  its  contents,  was  also  sometimes  ground  up  into  a  plaster, 
and  swallow-dung  itself  was  occasionally  substituted  for  "album 
Grsecum"  (pp.  817  et  seq.). 

Lion-dung  exerted  its  potency  in  cases  of  difficult  labor,  and  it  was 
the  panacea  against  epilepsy  and  apoplexy.  One  of  the  Grand  Dukes 
of  Austria  was  cured  of  epilepsy  by  its  use.  Preference  was  given  to 
the  excrement  of  a  female  lion,  except  where  she  had  just  brought 
forth  young.  An  anti-epileptic  remedy  of  great  repute  was  composed 
of  burnt  crow's-nest,  burnt  tortoise,  burnt  human  skulls,  linden-tree 
bark,  and  lion-dung,  made  into  an  infusion  by  long  digestion  in  spirits 
of  wine  (pp.  819,  820). 

Leopard's  dung  dissolved  calculi ;  was  taken  as  a  potion  for  the  cure 
of  dysentery ;  applied  as  a  plaster  for  the  cure  of  burns ;  hernia  was 
cured  by  a  bolus  composed  of  leopard's  dung,  human  mummy,  burnt 
worms,  syrup,  and  other  ingredients.  The  ashes  of  the  dung,  skin, 
and  hair  of  the  leopard,  in  combination,  expelled  calculi.  This  remedy 
should  be  drunk,  dissolved  in  wine ;  it  was  also  a  sure  remedy  for  the 
most  obstinate  cases  of  colic.  It  was  applied  externally  in  sciatica, 
also  in  constriction  of  the  vulva,  and  was  employed  to  facilitate  con- 
ception. In  the  last-named  instance  pastilles  (trochisci)  were  like- 
wise made  and  the  parts  fumigated.  Or  a  pessary  was  inserted  and 
kept  in  place  for  three  days  and  nights ;  "  et  quamvis  antea  sterilis 
fuerit,  deinceps  tamen  concipiet."  To  prevent  falling  out  of  eye- 
lashes and  eye-brows,  an  ointment  was  prepared  of  which  the  dung  of 
the  leopard  was  an  ingredient.  Finally,  it  was  in  esteem  as  an  aphro- 
disiac, and  to  expel  wind  from  the  womb  (p.  820). 


328  SCATALOGIC  EITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

Wolf-dung,  druuk  in  wine,  or  taken  as  a  powder,  iu  doses  of  one 
scruple  or  more,  was  used  iu  the  treatment  of  the  colic.  PauUini  is 
quoted  as  recommending  its  use  in  fevers.  The  dung  of  wolves,  as 
of  dogs,  should,  if  possible,  be  that  which  is  white  in  color,  dejected  by 
animals  which  have  been  feeding  upon  bones,  and  deposited  upon 
rocks,  thorns,  bushes,  or  the  lower  branches  of  trees,  but  not  on  the 
ground.  It  was  employed  internally  iu  pains  in  the  limbs,  and  admin- 
istered, also  internally,  in  form  of  powder,  iu  attacks  of  vertigo. 
Desiccated,  it  was  blown  into  eyes  afflicted  with  cataract.  The  cavities 
of  carious  teeth  were  filled  with  wolf-dung,  to  ease  the  pains  of  tooth- 
ache. For  nasal  hemorrhage,  the  smoke  of  burning  wolf-dung  was 
snuffed  up  into  the  nostrils ;  but  another  prescription  was  to  drink  an 
infusion  of  wolf-Jung  in  red  wine.  If  sheep  detected  the  odor  of  wolf- 
dung  about  their  paddocks,  or  folds,  they  would  behave  as  if  bewitched, 
running  from  side  to  side,  bleating  and  showing  as  much  terror  as  if 
their  arch-enemy,  the  wolf,  was  himself  at  hand.  Knowing  this  fact, 
rascally  mountebanks  were  wont  to  perpetrate  tricks  upon  the  ignorant 
and  unsuspecting  rustics,  by  secreting  some  of  this  dung  in  the  stable 
with  the  ewes  and  lambs,  frightening  them  out  of  their  wits,  and  then 
persuading  their  masters  that  their  flocks  were  suffering  from  some 
hidden  ailment  for  the  cure  of  which  they  would  demand  a  big  fee  in 
money  or  fat  sheep. 

Schurig  recommends  the  use  of  mouse-dung,  both  internally  and  ex- 
ternally, for  various  disorders,  for  constipation  in  children,  for  scald 
head,  and  dandruff,  in  which  cases  it  was  applied  as  an  ointment,  for 
the  elimination  of  calculi  in  kidneys  and  bladder,  for  all  swellings  iu 
the  fundament,  piles,  warts,  tumors  in  ano,  hemorrhages  of  the  lungs, 
for  the  suppression  of  the  menses,  and  even  to  excite  the  growth  of  the 
beard.  When  taken  internally,  it  was  administered  in  broth,  milk,  or 
panada ;  externally,  it  was  made  into  a  plaster  with  butter  and  such 
ingredients.  It  was  at  times  mixed  with  the  dung  of  sparrows  (p.  823 
et  seq.). 

Sheep-dung  figures  in  medicinal  preparations,  to  be  used  either  in- 
ternally or  externally.  Internally,  as  a  decoction,  in  yellow  jaundice, 
obstructions  and  constipation  of  the  bowels,  and  iu  small-pox.  Also 
as  a  specific  in  the  cure  of  gonorrhoea,  when  given  in  form  of  pills. 
For  pains  in  the  intestines,  for  swellings,  burns,  and  ingrowing  toe- 
nails, it  was  applied  as  a  plaster  (p.  826  et  seq.). 

Peacock-dung,  the  great  specific  in  all  cases  of  epilepsy  and  vertigo, 
was  administered  in  doses  of  one  dram,  and  in  France  was  held  in 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  329 

high  repute  for  such  purposes.  It  should  be  used  from  the  new  to  the 
full  moon,  and  be  taken  in  white  wine  (p.  828). 

This  paragraph  about  the  medicinal  value  of  the  droppings  of  the 
peacock  deserves  more  than  a  cursory  glance ;  in  it  we  have  a  strong 
suggestion  of  the  former  association  of  this  bird  with  moon  worship. 
The  peacock,  we  know,  was  the  bird  that  drew  the  car  of  Juno,  and 
that  goddess  was  as  much  a  lunar  deity  as  Diana. 

Pig-dung  or  swine-dung  appears  as  one  of  the  remedies,  of  both 
internal  and  external  application,  for  nasal  hemorrhage,  and  uterine 
flux.  For  nasal  hemorrhages,  it  was  dried  and  reduced  to  powder,  and 
drawn  up  into  the  nostrils  as  a  sort  of  snuff.  Applied,  externally, 
wai-m,  to  the  vulva,  it  was  regarded  as  an  aid  in  hemorrhage  of  the 
uterus  ;  it  was  also  given  internally  for  the  same  purpose.  It  was  not 
used  exclusively  for  such  hemorrhages,  but  had  a  great  repute  as  a 
styptic  in  general,  and  was  applied  to  wounds  of  all  descriptions.  It 
was  therefore  used  both  externally  and  internally  for  the  suppression 
of  excessive  menstrual  flow,  and  taken  internally  to  restrain  spitting  of 
blood.  It  was  of  general  use  in  the  treatment  of  felons,  and  was  also 
regarded  as  an  invaluable  febrifuge. 

For  nasal  hemorrhage,  it  was  occasionally  bound  round  the  temples. 
Oddly  enough,  it  was  believed  to  be  a  remedy  for  fetor  of  breath. 
"Alii  miscent  stercus  porcinum  exsiccatum,  cum  pulvere  rosarum  pro 
corrigendo  foetore  "  (p.  830  et  seq.). 

As  an  external  application  for  tumors  of  all  kmds,  cow-dung  had  a 
host  of  advocates,  who  likewise  extended  its  use  to  the  cure  of  scrofu- 
lous sores.  For  scrofulous  wens,  there  was  a  cataplasm  made  of  a  com- 
position of  various  dungs,  —  those  of  the  cow,  goat,  and  doves,  among 
others.     This  was  also  to  be  taken  internally,  in  white  wine. 

A  plaster  of  cow-dung  was  used  in  gout  of  the  feet.  The  dung  of 
grass-fed  cows  was  considered  excellent  for  tumors,  etc. ;  but  its  effi- 
cacy was  increased  when  mixed  with  cow-urine  or  the  urine  of  the 
patient  himself;  this  was  also  in  request  for  the  treatment  of  oedema. 
For  the  stings  of  bees  and  wasps,  a  plaster  of  cow-dung  was  frequently 
used  :  "  Contra  apum  et  vesparum  ictus,  stercus  vaccinum  cum  aceto 
utiliter  adhibetur "  (p.  837).  The  dung  of  a  black  cow,  burned  and 
given  in  scruple  doses  to  a  newly  born  child,  preserved  it  from  epilepsy 
and  consumption ;  it  was  also  employed  to  mitigate  the  pains  of  den- 
tition. The  dung  of  bulls  and  cows,  collected  in  the  month  of  May, 
distilled  with  water,  made  a  panacea  for  kidney  diseases;  it  also  ex- 
pelled calculi  and  induced  a  flow  of  urine. 


330  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

"  Haec  aqua  vocatur  aqua  omnium  florum,"  was  employed  both  in- 
ternally and  externally  in  gangrene,  inflammations,  rheumatism,  spasms, 
dropsy,  suppression  of  urine,  etc.,  and  was  used  externally  to  remove 
freckles  and  as  a  general  cosmetic. —  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  835  et  seq.) 

In  the  "Complete  English  Physician,"  London,  1730,  there  arc 
recipes  which  include  the  dung  of  geese,  dogs,  doves,  horses,  peacocks, 
hogs,  and  cows. 

In  the  "  Complete  English  Dispensator}'  "  of  John  Quincy,  London, 
1730,  p.  307,  under  the  head  "Distillation  of  Urine,"  it  is  alleged  that 
the  salts  obtained  from  the  urine  "  of  a  sound  yoxnig  man,  newly 
made,"  was  beneficial  in  rheumatism  and  ai-thritis.  "  Urina  hominis,  — 
urine  of  a  man.  Some  have  got  a  notion  of  this  being  good  for  the 
scurvy,  and  drink  their  own  water  for  that  end,  but  I  cannot  see  with 
what  reason.  Some  commend  it  boiled  into  the  consistence  of  honey, 
for  rheumatic  paint,  rubbing  it  onto  the  part  affected  ;  in  which  case 
it  may  do  good,  because  it  cannot  but  be  very  penetrating.  .  .  .  Urina 
vaccse,  —  cow  piss.  Some  drink  this  as  a  purge.  It  will  operate  vio- 
lently, but  it  is  practised  only  among  the  ordinary  people,  and  has 
nothing  in  its  virtues  to  prefer  it  to  more  convenient  and  cleanly  medi- 
cines, any  more  than  the  former  "  (pp.  248,  249) 

Father  Du  Halde  says  of  camel's  dung  :  "  When  it  is  dried  and  re- 
duced to  a  powder,  it  will  stop  bleeding  of  the  nose  by  being  blown 
into  it."  —  (Chinese  recipes  given  in  Du  Halde's  "  History  of  China," 
London,  1736,  vol.  iv.  p.  34.) 

"  The  dung  (of  sheep)  is  a  prevalent  medicine  against  the  jaundice, 
dropsy,  cholick,  pleurisy,  spleen,  stone,  gravel,  scurvy,  etc.,  taken  either 
in  powder,  tincture,  or  decoction.  The  dung,  made  into  a  cataplasm 
with  caniphire,  sal  armoniack,  and  a  little  wine,  opens,  digests,  at- 
tenuates and  eases  pain.  It  is  excellent  in  abscesses  about  the  ears 
and  other  emunctories,  swellings  in  women's  breasts,  pain  of  the  spleen, 
and  gout."  —  (Pomet,  "  History  of  Drugs,"  English  translation,  Lon- 
don, 1738,  p.  256.) 

The  rare  and  erudite  pamphlet  of  Samuel  Augustus  Flemming,  "  De 
Remediis  ex  Corpore  Humano  desumtis,"  Erfurt,  1738,  although  con- 
taining not  more  than  thirty-two  pages,  is  filled  with  a  mass  of  curious 
information  upon  subjects  generally  disregarded.  Flemming  remarks 
that  those  who  could  use  urine,  calculi,  and  things  of  that  kind  in 
medical  practice,  should  not  shrink  from  the  employment  of  ordure  as 
well.  "  And  it  is  truly  wonderful,"  he  says,  "  that  a  substance,  the 
very  aspect  and  odor  of  which  are  sufficient  to  induce  an  inevitable 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN  MEDICINE.  331 

nausea,  should  be  regarded  not  merely  as  a  matter  of  curiosity  and 
study,  but  held  in  the  highest  repute  as  a  unique  and  most  precious 
treasure  for  the  preservation  of  health." 

Yet  Paracelsus,  and  "others  of  his  school,  knowing  the  natural  re- 
pugnance to  the  acceptance  of  such  medicines,  prepared  it  under  the 
name  of  "  Zibethum  Occidentalis,"  and  administered  it  in  doses  of 
from  one  to  two  drams,  given  in  honey  or  wine,  to  ward  off  attacks  of 
fever ;  by  others,  it  was  employed  as  a  plaster  in  cases  of  throat- 
inflammation,  being  then  called  "  Aureum."  Others  again  were  of  the 
opinion,  from  an  examination  of  its  chemical  nature,  that  it  was  fairly 
entitled  to  a  place  in  the  Materia  Medica.  An  oil  and  water  were  dis- 
tilled from  it,  and  used  in  ocular  sores,  corrosive  ulcers,  and  all  sorts 
of  fistulas ;  for  affections  of  the  scalp,  for  the  ulcers  of  erysipelas,  for 
ring-worm  and  tetter,  and  especially  the  pains  of  gout.  Finally,  it  was 
believed  by  many  to  be  of  exceptional  efficacy  in  the  cure  of  the  plague, 
being  taken  internally. 

"  Qui  urina,  calculi  et  aliis  delectantur,  non  a  stercore  ipso  abhorre- 
bunt,"  etc.  The  full  citation  in  Latin  need  not  be  repeated,  as  it  is 
expressed  in  much  the  same  manner  as  the  views  of  Schurig,  Paulini, 
Etmuller,  Beckherius,  and  others  on  the  same  subject.  He  cites 
Zacutus  Lusitanus  Poterus  and  Johannes  Anglicanus,  neither  of  whose 
writings  are  to  be  found  in  America. 

Speaking  of  human  urine,  Flemming  says  that  physicians  boasted 
not  only  of  their  ability  to  diagnose  disease  from  urine,  but  to  use  the 
fluid  itself  in  the  treatment  of  disease.  It  was  employed  in  two  ways  : 
either  in  the  raw  state,  as  emitted  from  the  person  in  due  course  of 
nature,  or  in  chemical  preparations  extracted  from  it.  It  was  often 
administered  -with  beneficial  results  in  dropsy  as  an  enema.  In  diffi- 
cult labor,  a  draught  of  the  husband's  urine  taken  warm  brought  easy 
and  safe  delivery. 

A  drink  of  the  patient's  own  urine  was  highly  commended  in  hys- 
teria. As  an  external  application  for  the  eradication  of  dandruff",  scab, 
and  other  scalp  troubles,  it  was  held  in  high  esteem  among  the  com- 
mon people. 

A  salt  and  a  spirit  were  prepared  from  urine  by  distillation,  and 
highly  spoken  of  in  the  treatment  of  frenzy,  mania,  and  kindred  mental 
infirmities  of  a  grave  type. 

Flemming  quotes  from  Beckherius,  whose  writings  have  already 
been  presented,  and  from  Quercetanus,  in  "  Pharmac.  dogmat.," 
p.  119. 


332  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

("  De  Remediis  ex  Corpore  Humano  desumtis,"  Samuel  Augustus 
Fleiuming,  Erfurt,  p.  24  et  seq.) 

In  the  "  Physiological  Memoirs  of  Surgeon-Geueral  Hammond,  U.  S. 
Army,"  New  York,  1863,  a  chapter  is  devoted  to  ursemic  intoxication, 
or  tlie  exhilaration  produced  by  the  entrance  into  the  blood  of  urine, 
either  injected  or  abnormally  absorbed.  This  part  of  the  subject 
should  be  carefully  scrutinized  by  medical  experts,  whose  determina- 
tions may  make  known  whether  or  not  the  drunken  frenzy  of  the  Zufii 
dancers  could  be  attributed  to  the  unnatural  beverage  exclusively  or 
to  that  in  combination  with  other  intoxicants. 

Dunglison  says  :  "  Human  urine  was  at  one  time  considered  aperi- 
ent ;  and  was  giveu  in  jaundice  in  the  dose  of  one  or  two  ounces. 
Cow's  urine,  urina  vaccae,  all-flower  water,  was  once  used,  warm  from 
the  cow,  as  a  purge." —  ("  Dunglison's  Medical  Dictionary,"  Philadel- 
phia, Pa.,  18G0,  article  "  Urine.") 

In  the  "  Lancet,"  October,  1880,  p.  56,  Mr.  G.  F.  Masterman  draws 
attention  to  the  chemical  analysis  of  beef  tea,  and  shows  that  it  is 
analogous  to  urine,  excepting  that  it  contains  less  urea  and  uric  acid. 
"Many  writers  have  endeavored  to  impress  the  public  and  the  profes- 
sion with  the  true  value  of  beef  tea,  viz.,  that  it  is  not  a  nutrient  but 
a  stimulant,  and  that  it  mainly  contains  excrementitious  materials."  — 
("Beef  Tea,  Liebig's  Extract,  Extractum  Carnis,  and  Urine,"  Richard 
Neale,  M.  D.,  in  the  "  Practitioner,"  London,  November,  1881,  p.  SIS 
et  seq.) 

"In  South  America  urine  is  a  common  vehicle  for  medicine,  and 
the  urine  of  little  boys  is  spoken  highly  of  as  a  stimulant  in  malignant 
small-pox.  Among  the  Chinese  and  Malays  of  Batavia  urine  is  very 
freely  used.  One  of  the  worst  cases  of  epistaxis  ceased  after  a  pint  of 
fresh  urine  was  drunk,  although  it  had  for  thirty-six  hours  or  more 
resisted  every  form  of  European  medicine.  This  was  by  no  means  an 
unusual  result  of  the  use  of  urine,  as  I  was  informed  by  many  of  the 
natives.  ...  As  a  stimulant  and  general  pick-up,  I  have  frequently 
seen  a  glass  of  child's  or  a  young  girl's  urine  tossed  off  with  great  gusto 
and  apparent  benefit.  The  use  of  urate  of  ammouia  and  guano  was 
noticed  by  Bauer  in  1852,  who  found  their  external  use  of  value  in 
phthisis,  lepra,  morphoa),  and  other  obstinate  skin  diseases.  Dr. 
Hasting's  report  of  the  value  of  the  excreta  of  reptiles  in  1862,  in 
the  treatment  of  phthisis,  will  also  be  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the 
older  members  of  the  profession."  —  (Idem.) 

Some  of  the  tribes  of  Central  Africa  use  human  urine  as  an  invigor- 


ORDURE  AND  UEIXE   IN  MEDICINE.  333 

ant  during  the  fever  season,  much  as  Europeans  employ  quhiino.  — 
(Rev.  Mr.  Chatelain,  missionary  in  Angola,  Africa.) 

"  The  people  of  Angola  apply  fresh  urine  to  all  cuts  and  bruises."  — 
('*  Muhongo,"  African  boy  from  Angola,  West  Africa,  in  personal  in- 
terview with  Captain  Bourke,  translated  by  Rev.  Mr.  Chatelain,  mis- 
sionary.) 

ORDURE    AND    URINE    IN    FOLK-MEDICINE. 

Excrementitious  remedies  are  still  to  be  met  with  in  the  folk-medi- 
cine of  various  countries  ;  indeed,  the  problem  would  be  to  determine 
in  what  country  of  the  world  at  the  present  day  the  more  ignorant 
classes  do  not  still  use  them.  The  extracts  to  be  now  given  will  show 
that  folk-medicine  still  retains  a  hold  upon  medicaments  the  use  of 
which  is  generally  believed  to  have  passed  away  with  the  centuries. 

"  I  never  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  following  deed,  but  it  was 
many  times  asserted  to  me  by  serious  persons  :  In  our  province,  Brit- 
tany, when  somebody  in  the  peasantry  has  a  cheek  swollen  by  the 
effects  of  toothache,  a  very  good  remedy  is  to  apply  upon  the  swollen 
cheek,  as  a  poultice,  freshly  expelled  cow-dung,  and  even  human  dung, 
just  expelled  and  still  smoking,  which  is  considered  as  much  more  ef- 
ficient."—  (Personal  letter  from  Captain  Henri  Jouan,  French  Navy, 
Cherbourg,  France,  July  29,  1888.) 

"  Dans  nos  pays,  on  ne  connait  pas,  contre  les  piqures,  de  guepes  et 
autres  insectes,  venimeux,  et  contre  les  brMures  caustiques,  de  I'Urtica 
Ureus,  de  meilleur  remede  que  I'application  de  I'urine."  —  (Personal 
letter  from  Dr.  Bernard,  Cannes,  France,  August,  1888.) 

In  describing  the  medicine  of  the  Samoans,  Turner  says  :  "  On  some 
occasions  mud  and  even  the  most  unmentionable  filth  was  mixed  up 
and  taken  as  an  emetic  draught."  —  (London,  1884,  p.  139,  "Samoa.") 

"  Maw-wallop.  A  nlthy  composition,  sufficient  to  provoke  vomit- 
ing." —  (Grose,  "Diet,  of  Buckish  Slang,"  London,  1811.) 

"  In  Fayette  County  an  emetic  for  croup  is  made  by  mixing  urine 
and  goose-grease,  and  administering  internally,  and  also  rubbing  some 
of  the  mixture  over  the  throat  and  breast."  —  ("Folk-Lore  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Germans,"  FIoff*man,  in  "  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore," 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  January-March,  1889,  p.  28.) 

For  incised  wounds  use  human  urine  as  a  lotion  ;  for  lacerated 
wounds  apply  human  excrement.  —  (Sagen-Marchen,  Volksaberglau- 
ben,  ans  Schwaben,  Freiburg,  1861,  p.  487.) 

"  Horse-dung  and  beer  "  are  mentioned  as  the  remedy  used  in  Eng- 


334  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

land  and  France  for  the  cure  of  "  exceeding  faintness."  —  (See  Black, 
"Folk-Medicine,"  London,  1883,  pp.  152,  153,  quoting  Floyer  and  De 
La  Pryne.) 

Among  the  many  quaint  recipes  preserved  in  the  Materia  Medica  of 
English  physicians  down  almost  to  our  own  day  we  find  that  pigeon's 
dung  was  used  "to  make  a  cataplasm  against  scrophulous  and  other 
like  hard  tumors  ;  ...  for  an  ointment  against  baldness ;  ...  for  a 
cataplasm  to  ripen  a  plague  sore ;  ...  to  make  a  powder  against  the 
stone."  —  (John  Mathews  Eaton,  "  Treatise  on  Breeding  Pigeons," 
London,  pp.  39,  40,  quoting  Dr.  Salmon.) 

"Wolf-dung  recommended  in  the  treatment  of  colic.  —  (Black,  "  Folk- 
Medicine,"  p.  54.) 

"  A  decoction  of  sheep's  dung  and  water  was  \ised  in  recent  times 
in  Scotland  for  whooping-cough  and  in  cases  of  jaundice."  —  (Idem, 
p.  1G7.) 

On  the  same  page  Black  shows  that  the  same  remedy  was  exten- 
sively employed  in  Ireland  in  the  treatment  of  the  measles. 

"  In  the  south  of  Hampshire  a  plaster  of  warm  cow-dung  is  applied 
to  open  wounds." —  (Idem,  p.  IGl.) 

"  "Water  of  cow-dung,"  collected  in  May  and  June,  used  as  a  purge 
by  people  in  England.  — (Southey,  "Commonplace  Book,"  p.  554.) 

On  the  same  page  he  says  that  "man's  excrement  which  had  beea 
some  days  discharged,  thinned  with  so  much  ale,"  was  given  to  horses 
with  the  blind  staggers, —  "a  common  experiment."  —  (Idem.) 

A  poultice  of  pigeon's  dung  and  pounded  rose-leaves  was  in  use  for 
a  stitch  in  the  side.  —  (Southey,  "The  Doctor,"  London,  1848,  p.  59.) 

Swine's  dung  as  a  remedy  for  dysentery  in  Ireland,  alluded  to  in 
terms  of  high  approval  by  Borlase,  quoted  by  Southey  in  "  Common- 
place Book,"  p.  149. 

Hon.  E.  W.  P.  Smith,  secretary  of  the  United  States  Legation  in  the 
Republic  of  Colombia,  South  America,  states  that  among  the  San 
Bias  Indians  of  that  country,  and  the  lower  classes  generally,  the 
patient's  own  urine  is  applied  warm  for  sore  eyes. 

Mrs.  Fanny  D.  Bergen,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  has  for  some  years  de- 
voted time  and  intelligent  study  to  the  acquisition  of  data  bearing  upon 
the  superstitions  connected  with  the  human  saliva.  While  making  this 
valuable  and  curious  collection  she  has  also  been  fortunate  enough  to 
encounter  much  relating  to  kindred  superstitions,  and  has  very  gen- 
erously placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  author  of  this  volume  all  that 
related  to  the  employment  of  human  and  animal  egestse. 


ORDURE   AND  URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  335 

Urine  a  cure  for  chapped  hands,  on  Deer  Isle. 

Urinate  into  your  shoe  to  keep  it  from  squeaking,  on  Deer  Isle. 

Sheep-dung  tea,  a  cure  for  measles,  is  extensively  used  on  Deer 
Isle. 

Boys  nrinate  on  their  legs  to  prevent  cramp.  This  practice  was 
common  in  eastern  ^[aine  twenty  to  thirty  years  ago. 

Water  standing  in  the  depressions  of  cow-dung  was  formerly  recom- 
mended as  a  certain  cure  for  pulmonary  consumption,  in  Xew  York. 

Oil  tried  from  the  penis  of  the  hog  and  applied  to  the  loins  of  a  ciiild 
suffering  from  weakness  of  kidneys  or  bladder  cured  such  diseases,  in 
northern  parts  of  the  United  States  and  in  parts  of  Nova  Scotia. 

One's  own  urine  was  administered  for  gravel  in  Staffordshire,  Eng- 
land, within  the  past  ten  years. 

A  woman  in  England  was  given  her  own  urine  to  drink,  after  a  severe 
illness,  to  prevent  "fits,"  in  the  present  generation.  A  poultice  of 
fresh,  warm  cow-dung  cured  a  man  of  rheumatism  in  Xew  York. 
Measles  were  cured  by  giving  the  patient  a  decoction  of  lamb's  excre- 
ments (locally  called  "nanny-beads"),  in  Brunswick,  X.  Y.,  about 
1825.  A  newly  born  child  was  given  a  spoonful  of  woman's  urine  as 
a  laxative,  in  1814,  in  St.  Albans,  Vt.  The  white,  limy  part  of  hen- 
manure  was  used  for  canker-sores  in  mouth,  in  Abingdon,  111.  Cow- 
manure  was  used  for  swelled  breasts  in  County  Cork,  Ireland.  Sheep- 
manure  tea  was  used  for  measles  in  County  Cork,  Ireland,  and  by  the 
negroes  of  Chestertown,  Md.  Sheep-dung  tea  for  measles  all  over  New 
England,  Ohio,  and  Cape  Breton.  Cow-dung,  as  fresh  as  possible, 
plastered  on  inflamed  breasts,  commonly  known  as  "  bealed  "  breasts, 
within  the  last  twenty-five  years,  on  Cape  Breton. 

Similar  excrementitious  remedies  are  in  use  among  the  Pennsylvania 
Germans.  Cow-dung  poultices  are  applied  in  the  treatment  of  diph- 
theria, or  as  lenitives  in  cases  of  sore  or  gathered  breasts.  "  Tea  made 
of  sheep-cherries  (Gen.  et  spec?)  is  given  for  measles."  —  ("Folk- 
Medicine  of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans,"  in  "  Trans.  Amer.  Phil.  Soc," 
1889.) 

For  reasons  not  ascertained,  the  use  of  these  revolting  medicaments 
has  nearly  always  been  veiled  under  the  language  of  euphemism. 
Sheep-dung  is  rarely  called  by  its  own  name,  but  always,  as  has  been 
shown  in  the  preceding  remarks,  "  sheep-nanny  tea,"  etc.  In  the  same 
manner,  the  use  of  human  excreta  was  veiled  under  the  high-sounding 
designations  of  " zibethum,"  "oriental  sulphur,"  etc. 

This  use  of  sheep-dung  in  the  treatment  of  measles  must  be  veiy 


336  SCATALOGIC   PJTES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

ancient  and  wide-spread.  Surgeon  "Washington  ^Matthews  notes  its 
existence  among  the  Xavajoes,  who  learned  it  from  the  Spaniards. 

"  Slight  wounds  are  cured  "  by  the  application  of  dirt  to  the  part 
affected.  —  ("Nat.  trib.  of  S.  Australia,"  p.  284,  received  through  the 
kindness  of  the  Roy.  Soc.  Sydney,  N.  S.  Wales,  T.  B.  Kyngdon, 
Secretary.) 

Mr.  Chrisfield,  of  the  Library  of  Congress,  "Washington,  D.  C,  states 
that  urine  was  a  remedy  for  earache  among  people  on  eastern  shore  of 
Maryland  and  Virginia ;  while  for  the  cure  of  jaundice,  in  Xew  Eng- 
land, "the  spider,  and  even  a  more  disagreeable  remedy,  is  adminis- 
tered in  a  spoonful  of  molasses."  —  ("Folk-Medicine,"  Black,  London, 
1883,  p.  61,  quoting  Napier,  "  Folk-Lore,"  p.  95,  and  "  Folk- Lore 
Record,"  vol.  i.  p.  4.5.) 

"  I  am  impressed  to  tell  you  of  a  custom  that  prevailed  to  some  ex- 
tent among  the  people  of  this  State  (Iowa)  ;  this  was  the  use  of  sheep- 
dung  for  measles.  The  dung  was  made  into  what  the  old  women 
denominated  'tea,'  and  was  familiarly  known  as  'sheep-nanny  tea.' 
It  was  believed  to  be  singularly  efficacious  in  bringing  out  the  erup- 
tion. The  mixture  was  sweetened  with  sugar,  and  thus  disguised  was 
given  to  children.  This  practice  was  kept  up  among  certain  classes 
until  about  twenty  years  ago ;  I  have  not  heard  of  it,  at  least  in  recent 
years.  I  can  trace  the  custom  through  the  origin  of  the  families  in 
which  it  was  practised  here  to  Indiana  and  North  Carolina."  —  (Per- 
sonal letter  from  Prof.  S.  B.  Evans,  Ottumwa,  Iowa,  to  Captain  Bourke, 
April  16,  1888.) 

"  I  was  told  by  an  old  person,  now  dead,  that  some  fifty  years  since 
the  urine  of  a  cow  was  given  internally  as  a  remedy  for  chlorosis,  in 
the  comities  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Prof. 
Frank  Rede  Fowke  to  Captain  Bourke,  dated  London,  England,  June 
18,  1888.) 

"  In  the  country  where  I  was  born  I  have  seen  several  times,  when 
a  cow  or  an  ox  had  one  of  its  horns  knocked  away  by  a  shock  or  any 
other  cause,  people  pissing  into  the  horn  before  putting  it  again  over 
its  root.  This  was  supposed  necessary  to  cause  the  horn  to  stick  firmly 
against  the  root."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Captain  Henri  Jouan,  French 
Navy,  Cherbourg,  July  29,  1888.) 

"  The  presence  of  ammonia  in  the  secretions  (whose  power  of  neu- 
tralizing acids  may  have  been  accidentally  discovered)  may  have  had 
something  to  do  with  the  repute  of  the  excretions  of  the  kidneys.  I 
remember  to  have  been  told  as  a  little  boy  of  the  virtues  of  urine  as  a 


ORDURE   AND  URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  337 

relief  to  chapped  hands,  also  as  a  counter-irritant  for  inflamed  eyes. 
Ill  the  former  case  the  ammonia  would  soften  as  an  alkali  ;  in  the  lat- 
ter, the  salts  present  would  act  to  reduce  congestion,  like  common  salt, 
by  endosmosis."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Prof.  E.  N.  Horsford,  Harvard 
University,  to  Captain  Bourke,  April  19,  1888.) 

"  I  have  been  recently  informed,  by  a  man  who  is  acquainted  with 
the  peculiarities  of  Parisian  life,  that  there  are  men  who  are  in  the 
habit  of  swallowing  the  scum  which  they  obtain  from  the  street  urinals, 
and  that  they  are  known  as  *  Les  mangeurs  du  blanc."  (Prof.  Frank 
Rede  Fowke.)  According  to  Parent  du  Chatelet,  a  "mangeur  du 
blanc"  meant  in  Paris,  until  1810,  "a  man  who  lived  off  the  earnings 
of  a  strumpet."  The  name  has  since  boon  changed  to  "paillason." 
(See  "La  Prostitution,"  Paris,  1857,  vol.  i.  p.  138. 

"  When  I  was  a  boy  we  had  in  my  father's  house  a  gang  of  cats, 
and  I  remember  that  frequently  the  people  of  Cherbourg  came  and 
asked  permission  to  search  in  our  garrets  for  cat's  dung,  which, 
they  said,  mixed  and  infused  in  white  wine,  produced  a  very  efficient 
drink  against  periodical  fits  of  fever."  —  (Captain  Henri  Jouan,  French 
Navy.) 

Lye-tea,  made  of  human  urine  and  lime-water,  was  used  for  colds  by 
the  "  old  people  "  in  the  rural  parts  of  Central  New  York."  —  (Con- 
versation with  Colonel  Pierce,  Dr.  Pangborn,  and  Lieutenant  "W,  C' 
Elliott,  U.  S.  Army,  at  San  Carlos  Agency,  Arizona.) 

The  savages  of  Australia  apply  to  wounds  the  resin  of  the  eucalyp- 
tus, and  also  the  bark  of  the  same  tree,  previously  steeped  in  human 
urine.  (Personal  letter  from  John  Mathew,  Esq.,  M.  A.,  to  Captain 
Bourke,  dated  "The  j\Lanse,"  Coburg,  Victoria,  November,  1889.) 
The  same  thing  is  referred  to  in  "  The  Australian  Race,"  E.  ]\L  Curr. 
Melbourne,  1886,  vol.  i.  p.  2-56.  In  regard  to  the  uses  of  the  crust  of 
latrines,  in  connection  with  "mangeurs  du  blanc,"  see  other  pages  of 
this  volume. 

''  Philos.  ;  hermet.  ;  urine  du  vin,  le  vinaigre.  L^rine  des  jeuncs 
coleriques  Le  Mercure  Philosophe."  Diet.  Nationale,  par  M.  Bes- 
cherel,  ain^,  Paris,  1857,  sub  voc.  Urine  (p.  1573). 

We  have  already  been  informed  from  ]\rarco  Polo  that  the  prisoners 
taken  by  the  Tartars  often  poisoned  themselves ;  "  for  which  reason 
the  great  lords  haue  dogs'  dung  ready,  which  they  force  them  to  swal- 
low, and  that  forceth  them  to  vomit  the  poyson  "  (in  Purchas,  vol.  i. 
p.  92)  ;  and  we  have  also  learned,  from  many  sources,  —  Etmuller, 
Schurig,    Levinus    Lemnius,    Flemraing,    Paullini,   Beckherius,    Len- 

22 


338  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

tilius,  —  of  the  antidotal  powers  of  the  excreta.  The  existence  of  the 
very  same  belief  was  detected  among  the  natives  of  America. 

Padre  Inamma,  whose  interesting  researches  upon  rattlesnake  bites 
and  their  remedies  (made  in  Lower  California,  some  time  before  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  in  17C7)  are  published  in  Clavigero,^  says 
that  the  most  usual  and  most  efficacious  antidote  was  human  ordure, 
fresh  and  dissolved  iu  water,  drunk  by  the  person  bitten. 

Along  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  the  belief  was  prevalent  among  the 
aborigines  that  the  most  efficacious  remedy  for  poisoned  arrows  was 
that  which  required  the  wounded  man  to  swallow  pills  of  his  own 
excrement.* 

So  in  Peru,  "  when  sucking  infants  were  taken  ill,  especially  if  their 
ailment  was  of  a  feverish  nature,  they  washed  them  in  urine  in  the 
mornings,  and  when  they  could  get  some  of  the  urine  of  the  child, 
they  gave  it  a  drink."  ' 

OCCULT   INFLUENCES   ASCRIBED   TO   ORDURE   AND    URINE. 

In  Canada,  human  urine  was  drunk  as  a  medicine.  Father  Sagard 
witnessed  a  dance  of  the  Hurous  in  which  the  young  men,  women, 
and  girls  danced  naked  around  a  sick  woman,  into  whose  mouth  one 
of  the  young  men  urinated,  she  swallowing  the  disgusting  draught  iu 
the  hope  of  being  cured.* 

Analogous  medicaments  may  be  hinted  at  in  Smith's  account  of  the 
Araucanians  of  Chili :  "  Their  remedies  are  principally  if  not  entirely, 
vegetable  matter,  though  they  administer  many  disgusting  compounds 

1  El  remedio  mas  usual  y  eficaz  es  el  de  la  triaca  humana,  asi  llamada,  para 
mayor  decencia,  el  excremento  humano,  fresco  y  disuelto  en  agua  que  hacen  beber 
al  mordido.  —  (Clavigero,  "  Histoiia  de  la  Baja  California,"  Mexico,  18.52.) 

2  Decian  que  era  el  antidoto  de  esta  pon9ona  el  Fuego  1  el  agua  del  mar,  la  dieta 
y  continencia.  Y  oti*a  dicen  que  la  hez  del  herido  tomada  en  pildoras  o  en  otia 
forma.  (Herrera,  "Decades,"  2,  lib.  i.  pp.  3,  9,  10.)  They  used  to  say  that  the 
antidotes  for  this  poison  were  fire,  sea-water,  fasting,  and  continence.  Another  of 
which  they  speak  was  the  excrement  of  the  wounded  man,  taken  in  form  of  pill  or 
otherwise. 

3  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  "  Comentarios  Reales,"  Markham's  translation,  Ilak- 
luyt  Society,  vol.  xli.  p.  186. 

*  II  se  fit  un  jour  une  dance  de  tous  les  jeunes  hommes,  femmes  et  fiUes  toutes 
nues,  en  la  presence  d'une  malade  h,  la  quelle  il  fallut  (traict  que  je  ne  S5ay  commen 
excuser  ou  passer  sous  silence),  qu'un  de  ces  jeunes  honnnes  luy  pissast  dans  la 
bouche  et  qu'elle  auallast  et  beust  cette  eau,  ce  qu'elle  fit  avec  un  grand  courage, 
esperant  en  reccuoir  guerison.  — (Sagard,  "Ilistoire  du  Canada,"  edition  of  Paris, 
1885,  p.  107.) 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN  MEDICINK  339 

of  animal  matter,  which  they  pretend  are  endowed  with  miraculous 
powers." — (Smith,  "  Araucanians,"  New  York,  1855,  p.  234.) 

Brand  enumerates  obsolete  recipes,  one  of  which  (disease  not  men- 
tioned) directed  the  patient  to  take  ''five  spoonfuls  of  knave  child 
urine  of  an  innocent." — (Brand,  "Pop.  Ant,,"  London,  1849,  vol.  iii. 
p.  282.) 

The  Crees  apply  the  dung  of  animals  lately  killed  to  sprains.  —  (See 
"Mackenzie's  Voyages,"  etc.,  to  the  Arctic  Circle,  London,  1800, 
introd.  p.  106.) 

Henry  M.  Stanley  says  that,  for  the  cure  of  certain  ulcers  due  to 
fly-blow,  from  which  his  men  suffered,  "  Safeni,  my  coxswain  on  the 
Victoria  Nyanza,  .  .  .  adopted  a  very  singular  treatment,  which  I 
must  confess  was  also  wonderfully  successful.  .  .  .  This  medicine  con- 
sisted of  a  powder  of  copper  and  child's  urine,  painted  over  the  wound 
with  a  feather  twice  a  day."  —  ("  Through  the  Dark  Continent,"  New 
York,  1878,  vol.  ii.  p.  369.) 

"  It  appeared  that  the  dung  of  the  donkey,  rubbed  on  the  skin,  was 
supposed  to  be  a  cure  for  rheumatism,  and  that  this  rare  specific  was 
brought  from  a  distant  country  in  the  East,  where  such  animals  exist. 
—  ("The  Albert  Nyanza,"  Sir  Samuel  Baker,  Philadelphia,  1869, 
p.  372.) 

"  The  Mandingoes  of  Africa  dress  abscesses  with  cow's  dung.  —  (See 
Mungo  Park's  "  Travels  in  Africa,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvii.  p.  877. 
See,  also,  the  edition  of  his  works,  "  Travels  in  Africa,"  New  York,  etc.) 

The  author  has  seen  cow-manure  plastered  with  soothing  effect  upon 
bee-stings  in  New  Jersey. 

"  Pro  remedio,  in  pluribus  morbis  urina  foeminse  externe  applicata, 
in  eximia  estimatione  habetur."  —  ("  The  Native  Tribes  of  South 
Australia,  Adelaide,  1879,  introduction,  xvi.  See,  also.  Eyre,  "Expe- 
dition into  Central  Australia,"  London,  1845,  ii.  300.) 

"  Pilgrim's  Salve.  A  Sir-Reverence ;  human  excrement."  —  (Grose, 
"Dictionary  of  Buckish  Slang,"  London,  1811.) 

"The  medicine-men  of  the  Ove-herero,  who  live  south  of  Angola 
(which  is  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa),  urinate  over  the  sick,  in  order  to 
cure  them."  —  ("  Muhongo,"  interpretation  by  Rev.  Mr.  Chatelain.) 

The  Inuit  medicine-man  asperse^  the  sick  with  human  urine,  "  le 
goupillone  avec  de  vieilles  urines,  k  I'instar  des  docteurs  a  poison 
bochimans  .  .  .  les  Cambodgieus  aspergent  egalement  le  demon  de 
la  petite-verole  avec  de  I'urine,  mais  cette  urine  est  celle  d'un  cheval 
blanc."  —  (Reclus,   "  Les  Primitifs,"  p.   98.) 


340  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  There  are  few  complaints  that  the  natives  do  not  attempt  to  cure, 
either  by  charms  or  by  specific  applications.  Of  the  latter,  a  very 
singular  one  is  the  application  personallj'  of  the  urine  from  a  female, — 
a  very  general  remedy,  and  considered  a  sovereign  one  for  most  dis- 
orders."—  (Eyre,  "Expedition  into  Central  Australia,"  London,  1845, 
vol.  ii.  p.  300  J  contributed  by  Prof  H.  C.  lienshaw.  Bureau  of  Eth- 
nology, Smithsonian  Institution,  Washington,  D.  C.) 

(See  previous  references  to  the  therapeutics  of  the  native  Aus- 
tralians in  this  volume. 

"  Plasters  of  mixed  grass,  butter,  and  cow-dung  were  placed  on  the 
wounds"  of  sore-backed  animals  in  Abyssinia. —  ("A  Visit  to  Abys- 
sinia," "W.  Winstanley,  London,  1881,  vol.  ii.  p.  3.) 

Cameron  employed  a  native  medicine-man,  near  Lake  Tanganyika, 
to  treat  one  of  his  men  who  had  injured  his  eye.  "  His  treatment 
consisted  of  a  plaster  of  mud  and  dirt,  and  his  fee  was  forty  strings  of 
beads." —("  Across  Africa,"  London,  1877,  vol.  i.  p.  322.  The  word 
"  dirt,"  as  used  by  Cameron  in  the  above  sentence,  no  doubt  means 
ordure.) 

Mr.  Stewart  Culin,  of  Philadelphia,  Penn.,  who  has  been  making 
careful  investigations  into  the  Chinese  materia  medica,  states  that 
"  frequent  directions  for  the  use  of  urine  "  are  to  bo  seen  "  among  the 
official  remedies  in  the  herbal."  Only  a  few  pages  back,  reference  was 
had  to  the  use  by  the  Chinese  in  Batavia  of  all  kinds  of  excrementi- 
tious  remedies.^ 

The  Eeverend  Maurice  J.  Bywater  writes  from  Nassau,  Bahamas, 
that  during  the  seven  years  he  was  on  missionary  duty  in  the  island 
of  Borneo,  he  witnessed  several  very  curious  and  remarkable  instances 
of  the  restorative  and  stimulating  effects  of  human  urine,  as  used  by 
the  Chinese  immigrants  in  cases  of  accident. 

The  Coreans  use  the  same  system  of  medicine  as  the  Chinese.  Both 
employ  plasters  of  human  excrement  for  bites,  erysipelas,  inflamma- 
tions, etc.  They  use  the  urine  of  a  healthy  boy  as  a  tonic. —  (Dr.  II. 
T.  Allen,  Secretary  of  Legation,  Corean  Embassy,  Washington,  D.  C, 
1888.)  2 

Our  knowledge  of  the  Thibetans  is  still  so  limited  that  we  must  not 

1  "The  urine  of  young  children,  mixed  with  lime  and  evaporated  until  a  solid 
is  formed,  cures  general  debility,  and,  made  into  a  liquid,  is  most  usefully  applied 
as  a  lotion  for  the  eyes."  (China.) — ("Evening  Star,"  Washington,  D.  C, 
Oct.   11,   1890.) 

*  This  is  confirmed  by  Mr.  Frank  G.  Carpenter,  who  has  visited  Corea. 


ORDURE  AND  URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  341 

attach  too  much  importance  to  the  little  we  have  so  far  gained ;  there 
is  still  much  to  be  learued  concerning  that  singular,  isolated  race. 

The  strange  veneration  accorded  the  excrement  of  the  Grand  Lama 
has  been  fully  discussed,  but  their  sacred  books  do  not  show  that  the 
employment  of  stercoraceous  medicaments  is  carried  any  farther. 

According  to  the  translation  of  the  "  Pratimoksha  Sutra"  made  by 
Mr.  W.  W.  Rockhill,  sick  Buddhist  monks  were  ordered  to  employ  the 
following  remedies:  " Le  beurre  fondu,  I'liuile,  la  melasse,  le  miel, 
I'ecume  de  melasse." —  ("Asiatic  Society,"  Paris,  1885,  p.  22.) 

Dr.  Francis  Parkman,  in  his  "Jesuits  in  North  America,"  Boston, 
1867,  introduction,  p.  xl.,  speaks  of  the  "revolting  remedies"  em- 
ployed by  the  Huron,  Iroquois,  and  Algonquin  tribes. 

The  following  are  among  many  of  the  curious  recipes  given  in  the 
"Tragedy  of  the  Gout,"  written  by  Blambeauseant,  in  1600:  — 

"  Ther  's  the  odorous  sheep's  dung,  given  always  on  the  sly." 

"  A  little  blue  ointment,  mixed  with  man's  ordure." 

"  Virgin's  urine,  as  a  cure  for  all  the  men  in  town." 

("  Medicine  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  Minor,  p.  88.) 

Further  references  can  be  found  in  the  following  list,  taken  from 
the  "Bibliotheca  Scatalogica,"  which  likewise  contains  several  of  those 
fi'om  which  citations  have  already  been  made. 

"  Get  emploi  des  stercora,  et  en  particulier,  de  ceux  de  I'homme, 
pour  les  usages  pharmaceutiques,  est  tres  reel.  On  nommait  medecins 
stercoraires  ceux  qui  les  prescrivaient,  et  on  dissimulait  I'origine  de  la 
substance  sous  diverses  denominations  bizarres  ou  ridicules  (carbon 
humanum,  oletum,  sulphur  occideutale) .  Suivant  Paracelse,  les  ex- 
crements humains  pouvaient  par  une  certaine  preparation,  acquerir 
I'odeur  du  muse  et  de  la  civette ;  de  la  le  nom  qu'on  leur  donnait  de 
civette  ou  muse  occidental."  —  ("  Bib.  Scat.,"  p.  29.) 

Ganin,  De  Simplic.  Medicament,  facnltat.  lib.  x.  fol.  m.  75,  seq. 
"An  stercoris  usus  liciturl  Conceditur."  —  (Xo.  200  of  the  "Bib. 
Scat.,"  p.  77.) 

"202.  Gufer,  Joh.  Medicin.  domest.  tab.  3,  p.  11,  et  Joh.  phil. 
Gieswein,  De  Mater.  Medic,  p.  292,  imprimis  laudant  stercus  hominis 
qui  lupinos  comedit." —  (Idem,  p.  78.) 

"203,  Helvetius,  Joh.  Freder,  Diribitor.  med.  p.  112,  seq.^  recom- 
mande  le  stercus  humanum  recens  et  adhnc  calidum."  —  (Idem.) 

Herodote,  lib.  ii. ;  Hesoide,  "Opera  et  Dies." 

Sheep-dung,  boiled  in  milk,  recommended  for  the  cure  of  the  whoop- 


342  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

ing  cough  by  the  Swedish  physician  Hjoort,  as  well  as  by  the  French 
doctor  Baumer.  —  ("  Bib.  Scat."  p.  78.) 

Hoffmann,  Fred,  annot.  in  Petr.  poter,  Pharmacop.  Spagyric  (lib.  i. 
p.  445),  dit  que  excrementa  alviua  magnara  vim  possideut. 

Homere,  Odyssee,  lib.  vi.  —  ("  Bib.  Scat."  p.  78.) 

Kircher,  Podronus  ^Egypticus,  cap.  ult. 

Laerce  (Diogene)  in  Pythagor. 

Langius  (Christ.),  Oper.  Medic,  regarde  les  medicaments  stercoraux 
ut  res  iudigna  et  execrabilis,  cependant  11  en  permet  I'usage  contra 
desperatissimos  morbos  "  (p.  79). 

Lotichus,  Johan.  De  casei  ncquitise,  Francof.  1640,  "  sordidi  medi- 
castri  et  o-Karo^ayoi  excrementis  frui  solent ;  sed  homo  vero  cordatus 
et  bou8e  mentis  se  abstinet  "  (p.  81). 

"M.  Gustave  Brunet  a  insere  dans  sa  traduction  des  propos  de 
table  de  Martin  Luther"  (Paris,  1844,  p.  377),  "quelques  pensees  du 
celebre  reformateur  qui  appartieunent  a  notre  sujet.  L'une  roule  sur 
la  transformation  des  excrements  en  nouveaux  aliments ;  I'autre  sur 
les  propriet^s  de  la  fiente,"  etc.  (p.  81). 

Macrobii  Saturnal.  lib.  iii. ;  Martialis,  Epigrammata,  iv.  88;  vii.  18; 
xii.  40,  77,  et  ailleurs"  (p.  81). 

Mayem,  Theodor.  de  Prax.  Medic,  syntagm.  alter  mele  le  stercus  a 
la  poudre  d'oeillets  "  (gilly-flowers). 

Menangiana.  Paris,  1715,  4  vols,  in  12.  On  trouve  dans  ce  livre 
divers  passages  relatifs  a  notre  sujet.  Voy.  t.  1,  pp.  9,  180,  222 ;  t.  2, 
p.  198;  t.  3,  p.  239. 

Clemens  d'Alexandrie,  Hecogu.  lib.  v.  p.  71. 

Denne,  Ludovic.  Pharmac.  dissert.  1.  p.  m.  ill,  seq.  "II  blame 
I'usage  medical  des  excrements  humains"  (p.  73). 

Diodore  de  Sicile,  lib.  i.  cap.  8,  p.  73. 

Damian,  P.  Opuscula,  c.  2,  p.  73. 

Praterius,  Praxis,  lib.  iii.  p.  330,  recommande  surtout  I'huile  et  I'eau 
extraite  de  stercore  humano.  Suivant  Belleste,  Chirurg.  d'hopital,  part 
3,  p.  248,  chap.  4,  le  sel  extrait  des  excrements  du  malade  atteint  de 
dysentere  le  guerit." 

Plutarque,  Apoph.  Laconic,  p.  232.  Petrus  Pharmacop.  Spagiric. 
p.  m.  445,  regarde  le  stercus  comme  pouvant  founiir  rara  et  perfecta 
remedia.  Eeference  is  had  to  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Rabelais  "  sur 
les  anisterges."  Rivinus  (Augustus  Quirinus)  Censur.  Medicament, 
officinal,  cap.  2,  p.  10,  et  seq.  et  15  et  seq.,  "streuue  contra  stercorum 
usum  pugnat."     There  are  other  old  medical  authorities  cited,  some 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN    MEDICINE.  343 

fully,  others  ouly  partially  in  favor  of  the  medicinal  use  of  the  excreta  ; 
and  one  or  two  in  antagonism  thereto.  —  ("Bib.  Scat,"  p.  38  et  seq.). 

"  On  a  appelle  album  nigrum  les  crottes  des  souris  et  des  rats,  jadis 
employes  comme  purgatif  par  les  medecins  stercoraires.  Merde  du 
diable,  stercus  diaboli,  c'est  I'assafoetida,  espece  de  gomme."  ("Bib. 
Scat."  p.  128.  See  also  Grose,  Diet,  of  Buckish  Slang,  Lond.  1811, 
Assafoet.)  On  the  principle  of  "lucus  a  non  lucendo,"  the  works  of 
Svvieten,  "  Commentariorum,"  etc.,  Lyons,  1776,  are  worthy  of  special 
mention ;  careful  examination  fails  to  discover  any  allusion  to  the  use 
of  excreta,  human  or  animal,  in  pharmacy  or  therapeutics,  and  no 
mention  is  made  of  witchcraft.  Therefore  the  works  of  this  author 
mark  a  new  stage  in  the  development  of  scientific  and  religious 
thought. 

In  Warner's  "  Topographical  Remarks  relating  to  the  southwestern 
parts  of  Hampshire,"  1793  (vol.  ii.  p.  131),  speaking  of  the  old  register 
of  Christ  Church,  that  author  tells  us,  "  The  same  register  aflbrds, 
also,  several  very  curious  receipts,  or  modes  of  cure  in  some  singular 
cases  of  indisposition ;  they  are,  apparently,  of  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  couched  in  the  uncouth  phraseology  of  that 
time."  I  forbear,  however,  to  insert  them,  from  motives  of  delicacy. 
—  (Brand,  "Pop.  Ant."  vol.  iii.  p.  306,  article  "  Physical  Charms.") 

"  A  new-born  babe  was  not  considered  fully  prepared  for  life's  jour- 
ney until  its  stomach  had  been  filled  and  emptied  by  a  potation  of 
molasses  diluted  with  the  vesical  secretions  of  the  first  youngster  that 
could  be  secured  for  the  purpose." — ("Professional  Reminiscences," 
Benjamin  Eddy  Cutting,  M.  D.,  Curator  of  the  Lowell  Institute,  Bos- 
ton, Mass.,  1888,  p.  40.) 

OTHER    EXCREMENTITIOUS    REMEDIES. 

It  was  not  enough  that  the  urine  and  ordure  of  men  and  animals 
should  be  employed  in  pharmacy  ;  everything  that  could  be  taken  from 
the  bodies  of  men  or  animals,  wild  or  domesticated,  living  or  dead,  was 
enlisted  to  swell  the  dread  list  of  filth  remedies. 

EtmuUer  supplies  the  following  list  of  remedies ;  "  sumuntur  ex  cor- 
pore  vivente  : "  Hair,  nails,  saliva,  ear-wax,  sweat,  milk,  menses,  after- 
birth, urine,  ordure,  semen,  blood,  calculi,  worms,  lice,  caul  (of  infant), 
.  .  .  and  these  "ex  partibus  corporis  demortui."  .  .  .  The  whole 
corpse,  flesh,  skin,  fat,  bones,  skull,  moss  growing  on  a  skull,  brain, 
gall,  heart.     Gall  of  animals  has  been  used  by  the  Indians  of  North 


344  SCATALOGIC   EITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

America  as  a  stimulant.     (See  Etmuller,  Michaelus,  "  Opera  Omnia," 
vol.  ii.  p.  265,  Schrod.  "  Dil.  Zool.") 

He  also  recites  that  the  following  parts  of  domestic  kine  were  used 
in  medical  practice :  horns,  bile,  liver,  spleen,  blood,  marrow,  tallow, 
fat,  hoofs,  urine,  ordure,  testicles,  milk,  butter,  cheese,  phallus,  and 
bones.  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  248  et  seq.) 

HAIR. 

"  The  first  hair  cut  from  an  infant's  head  will  modify  the  attacks  of 
gout.  .  .  .  The  hair  of  a  man  torn  down  from  the  cross  is  good  for 
quartan  fevers." —  (Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  7.) 

"  The  smell  of  a  woman's  hair,  burnt,  will  drive  away  serpents,  and 
hysterical  suifocations,  it  is  said,  may  be  dispelled  thereby.  The  ashes 
of  a  woman's  hair,  burnt  in  an  earthen  vessel,  will  cure  eruptions  and 
porrigo  of  the  eyes  .  .  .  warts  and  ulcers  upon  infants  .  .  .  wounds 
upon  the  head  .  .  .  corrosive  ulcers  .  .  .  inflammatory  tumors  and 
gout  .  .  .  erysipelas  and  hemorrhages,  and  itching  pimples."  —  (Plinj-, 
lib.  xxviii.  c.  20.) 

Schurig  commends  the  use  of  human  hair  in  cases  of  baldness,  ap- 
plied externally  in  salve,  chopped  fine  or  in  ashes;  for  the  cure  of 
yellow  jaundice,  it  was  powdered  and  drunk  in  some  suitable  men- 
struum ;  it  was  employed  in  luxation  of  the  joints,  for  hemorrhage  from 
wounds :  "  Ad  canis  morsuum,  infantis  capilli  cum  aceto  impositu 
morsum  sine  tumore  sanant  et  capitis  ulcera  emendant."  —  (Sextus 
Placitus,  art.  "  De  Puello  et  Puella  Virgine.") 

Flemniing  advised  that  it  be  powdered  and  drunk  in  wine  as  a  cure 
for  yellow  jaundice ;  woman's  hair,  powdered  and  made  into  a  salve, 
with  lard,  was  of  general  efficacy ;  men's  hair  was  burned  under  the 
nostrils  of  those  suffering  from  lethargy  ;  and  was  drunk  for  "  suffoca- 
tion of  the  womb."  —  ("  De  Remediis,"  etc.  p.  8.) 

A  medicinal  oil  was  distilled  from  the  hair  of  a  full  beard,  and  an 
ointment  made  from  the  same.  Powdered  human  hair  was  drunk  as  a 
potion  in  a  cure  for  yellow  jaundice ;  the  ashes  of  burnt  hair  were  made 
into  an  unguent  with  mutton  tallow,  and  applied  to  the  nostrils  of  peo- 
ple in  a  state  of  lethargy ;  in  "  suffocation  of  the  uterus,"  this  oint- 
ment was  applied  to  the  pudenda.  The  hair  of  a  patient  was  frequently 
used  in  affecting  "  sympathetic  cures,"  or  in  what  were  called  "  Cures 
by  Transplantation,"  but  the  names  of  the  diseases  are  not  given  by 
Flcmming  (p.  21).  (But  see  under  "Cures  by  Transplantation"  in 
this  volume.) 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  345 

la  China,  the  shavings  of  the  hair,  which  must  amount  to  a  consid- 
erable quantity,  since  hundreds  of  millions  of  peoj^le  shave  the  head 
close  daily,  are  preserved  for  manuring  the  land.  —  (See  "  Bingham's 
Exped.  to  China,"  London,  1842,  vol.  ii.  p.  7.) 

In  China,  everything  connected  with  tlie  tilling  of  the  fields  is  still 
a  religious  rite.  Probably  no  country  in  the  world  of  equal  advancement 
has  adhered  with  more  tenacity  to  old  usages  in  all  that  pertains  to  the 
turning-up  of  the  soil  j  there  are  ceremonies  in  which  the  Emperor 
himself  must  lead  with  a  plough.  How  much  all  this  may  have  to  do 
with  the  utilization  of  a  refuse  which  has  been  so  generally  regarded  as 
possessed  of  "  magical  "  or  "  medicinal  "  properties,  is,  in  all  likelihood, 
never  to  be  ascertained ;  but  attention  should  be  attracted  to  the  fact, 
in  the  same  manner  that  it  was  found  worth  while  to  make  an  exami- 
nation into  the  history  of  latrines. 

"Among  ourselves,  it  is  a  Devonshire  belief  that  you  can  give  a 
neighbor  ague  by  burying  a  dead  man's  hair  under  his  threshold."  — 
("Folk-Medicine,"  Black,  p.  27.) 

"  In  Devonshire  and  in  Scotland  alike,  when  a  child  has  whooping- 
cough,  a  hair  is  taken  from  its  head,  put  between  slices  of  bread  and 
butter,  and  given  to  a  dog,  and  if  in  eating  it  the  dog  cough,  as  natural- 
ly he  will,  the  whooping-cough  will  be  transferred  to  the  animal,  and 
the  child  will  go  free."  The  same  method  of  cure  is  practised  in  Ireland, 
but  the  animal  selected  is  an  ass.  —  (Idem,  p.  35.) 

"Certain  oak-trees  at  Berkhampstead,  in  Hertfordshire,  were  long 
famous  for  the  cure  of  ague.  The  ti'ansference  was  simple,  but  pain- 
ful. A  lock  of  hair  was  pegged  into  an  oak,  and  then,  by  a  sudden 
wrench,  transferred  from  the  head  of  the  patient  to  the  tree."  —  (Idem, 
p.  39.) 

Clippings  of  hair  and  rags  are  offered  to  holy  wells  in  Ireland,  Bor- 
neo, Malabar,  etc.,  not  merely  as  offerings  to  deities,  but  in  order  to 
effect  a  "  transference  "  of  diseases  to  the  people  who  may  take  hold 
of  them. —  (Idem,  pp.  39,  40  ;  quoting  from  Tylor,  "  Primitive  Culture," 
vol.  ii.,  and  others.) 

"  In  New  England,  to  cure  a  child  of  the  rickets,  a  lock  of  its  hair 
is  buried  at  cross-roads,  and  if  at  full  moon,  so  much  the  better."  — 
(Idem,  p.  56  ) 

It  is  believed  in  parts  of  England  that  the  hairs  from  a  donkey's  back, 
wrapped  up  in  bread,  and  given  to  a  sick  child,  will  cure  the  whooping- 
cough  ;  another  remedy  of  the  same  kind  is  to  take  clippings  from  the 
child's  own  head,  mix  them  in  butter,  and  give  to  a  dog,  which  will 


346  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

take  the  disease  from  the  child  ;  still  another  was  to  mount  the  suffer- 
er upon  the  back  of  an  ass,  and  lead  him  nine  times  round  an  oak- 
tree.  —  (See  Brand,  "Top.  Ant."  vol.  iii.  p.  288,  art.  "Physical 
Charms.") 

The  Romans  attached  certain  omens  to  the  manner,  time,  and  place 
of  cutting  the  nails  and  hair.  —  (See  Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  c.  5.) 

The  ancients  believed  that  "  no  person  in  a  ship  must  pare  his  nails, 
or  cut  his  hair  except  in  a  storm." —  (Brand,  "  Pop.  Ant.,"  vol.  iii.  p. 239, 
art.  "Omens  Among  Sailors,"  quoting  Petronius  Arbiter.) 

"  When  a  man  has  his  hair  cut,  he  is  careful  to  burn  it,  or  bury  it 
secretly,  lest  falling  into  the  hands  of  some  one  who  has  an  evil  eye, 
or  is  a  witch,  it  should  be  used  as  a  charm  to  afflict  him  with  a  head- 
ache."—  (Livingston,  "Zambesi,"  London,  1865,  p.  47.) 

Etmuller  relates  that  in  his  time  women  suffering  from  retention  of 
the  menses  were  in  the  habit  of  plucking  the  hair  growing  on  the  pubis, 
which  would  promptly  cause  their  reappearance,  but  whether  by  the 
irritation  or  by  taking  the  hair  internally,  is  not  clear  ;  —  "  Mulieres 
suffocataj  ex  utero  soleaut  vellicare  in  pilis  pubis,  ut  citius  et  felicius 
ad  se  redeant."  Finger-nail  clippings  were  drunk  as  an  emetic,  es- 
pecially by  soldiers  while  on  campaign  :  —  "  L^ngues  infusi  in  vinum 
vel  potum  cum  vehementia  cient  vomitum  et  purgant  per  fecessum 
.  .  .  propinavit  pro  vomitorio  et  purgante  militibus  ungues  proprios 
infusos  per  noctem  in  vinum  calidum"  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  p.  269). 

"The  hair  and  nails  are  cut  at  the  full  moon." — (Grimm,  "Teu- 
tonic Mythology,"  Stallybrass,  London,  1882,  vol.  ii,  p.  712  et  seq.) 

The  Patagonians  "  all  believe  that  the  witclies  and  wizards  can  injure 
whom  they  choose,  even  to  deprivation  of  life,  if  they  can  possess  them- 
selves of  some  part  of  their  intended  victim's  body,  or  that  which  has 
proceeded  thence,  such  as  hair,  pieces  of  nails,  etc.  .  .  .  And  this 
superstition  is  the  more  curious  from  its  exact  accordance  with  that 
so  prevalent  in  Polynesia."  —  ("  Voyage  of  the  Adventure  and  Beagle," 
London,  1839,  vol.  ii.  p.  163,  quoting  the  Jesuit  Faulkner.) 

"  Which  is  the  most  deadly  deed  whereby  a  man  increases  most 
the  baleful  strength  of  the  Dsevas,  as  he  would  by  offering  them  a 
sacrifice  1 " 

" Ahura  Mazda  answered :  —  'It  is  when  a  man  here  below  combing 
his  hair  or  shaving  it  off,  or  paring  off  liis  nails,  drops  them  in  a  hole 
or  in  a  crack.' "  —  (Fargard  XVII.  Aveudidad,  Zendavesta,  Oxford, 
1880,  p.  186.) 

Beckherius  states  that  the  clippings  of  the  finger-nails  made  an  ex- 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  347 

cellent  emetic.  "  Yomitorium  non  inelegans  ex  iis  paratur."  —  ("  Med. 
Mic") 

Flemming  goes  more  into  detail ;  he  says  that  the  finely  ground 
clippings  of  the  hoof  of  the  elk,  stag,  goat,  bull,  etc.,  were  employed 
as  a  vomitory,  but  in  their  absence,  human  finger-nails  were  substituted ; 
''  istam  ungulorum  speciem  quae  ab  homine  desumitur,  substitui."  Hu- 
man finger-nail  clippings  were  also  recommended  in  "  sympathetic " 
cures.  —  (Flemming,  "  De  Remediis,"  p.  21.) 

"He  who  trims  his  nails  and  buries  the  parings  is  a  pious  man  ;  he 
who  bums  them  is  a  righteous  man  ;  but  he  who  throws  them  away 
is  a  wicked  man,  for  mischance  might  follow  should  a  female  step  over 
them."  —  (Paul  Isaac  Hershon,  "  Talmudic  Miscellany,"  Boston,  1880, 
p.  49  ;  footnote  to  above,  "  The  orthodox  Jews  in  Poland  are  to  this  day 
careful  to  bury  away  or  burn  their  nail-parings.") 

On  a  fragment  of  a  Chaldean  tablet  occurs  this  curious  passage  :  — 

"  A  son  to  his  mother, 

(if)  he  has  said  to  her.  Thou  art  not  my  mother 

His  hair  and  nails  sliall  be  cut  off, 

In  the  town  he  shall  be  banished  from  land  and  water." 
("Clialdean  Magic,"  Francois  Lenormant,  Loudon,  1873,  p.  382.) 

In  the  province  of  Moray,  Scotland,  "  In  hectic  fevers  and  consump- 
tive diseases  they  pare  the  nails  of  the  fingers  and  toes  of  the  patient, 
put  these  in  a  bag  made  of  a  rag  from  his  clothes,  .  .  .  then  wave 
their  hand  with  the  rag  thrice  round  his  head,  crying  '  Deas  Soil,'  after 
which  they  bury  the  rag  in  some  unknown  place."  Pliny,  in  his 
Natural  History,  mentions  it  as  practised  by  the  magicians  or  Druids 
of  his  time.  —  (Brand,  "  Pop.  Ant.,"  vol.  iii.  p.  286,  art.  "  Physical 
Charms.") 

SUPERSTITIONS    CONNECTED    WITH   THE   HUMAN   SALIVA. 

The  most  recent  work  on  this  subject  is  the  extended  monograph  of 
Mrs.  Fanny  D.  Bergen,  of  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  now  in  press, 
and  to  the  pages  of  which  the  author  of  this  volume  has  contributed 
his  own  collection  of  data. 

Reference  may  also  be  had,  with  advantage,  to  Brand's  Popular 
Antiquities,  Reginald  Scot's  "  Discoverie  of  Witchcraft,"  Black's  "Folk- 
Medicine,"  Samuel  Augustus  Flemming's  "  De  Remediis  ex  Corpore 
Humano  desumtis,"  Lenormant's  "  Le  Magie  chez  les  Chaldiens,"  and 
to  the  works  of  Pliny,  Galen,  "  Saxon  Leechdoms,"  Levinus  Lemnius, 
Beckherius,  Etrauller,  and  many  others. 


348  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

John  Graham  Dalyell,  "  Superstitions  of  Scotland,"  Edinburgh,  1834, 
has  a  chapter  on  the  occult  influences  attributed  to  human  saliva. 
Wlieu  the  Khonds  of  Orissa  were  about  to  sacrifice  a  human  victim, 
they  were  wont  to  solicit  the  favor  of  having  him  spit  in  their  faces ; 
"  sollicitent  im  crachat  qu'ils  s'etendront  soigneusement."  —  ("Les 
Primitifs,"  Reclus,  p.  368.) 

In  the  ritual  of  the  Hill  Tribes  of  the  Nilgherris,  it  is  related  :  — 

"  Mada  a  crache  dans  les  fontaines." 

(Quoted  in  "Les  Primitifs,"  p.  244.) 

Frommaun,  in  his  "  Tractatus  de  Fascinatione,"  Nuremburg,  1G75, 
speaks  of  the  anointing  of  eyes  with  saliva,  to  cure  blindness  ;  this  he 
compares  to  the  use  made  by  our  Saviour  of  the  same  (p.  196). 

"The  Kirghis  tribes  apply  to  their  sorcerers,  or  Baksy,  to  chase 
away  demons,  and  thus  to  cure  the  diseases  they  are  supposed  to  pro- 
duce. To  this  end  they  whip  the  invalid  until  the  blood  comes,  and 
then  spit  in  his  face." — ("Chaldean  Magic,"  Fran9ois  Lenormant, 
London,  1873,  p.  212.) 

Many  interesting  practices  connected  with  the  human  saliva,  are 
given  in  Lady  Wilde's  "  Ancient  Legends  and  Superstitions  of  Ireland," 
Boston,  1888.  See  also  "The  Golden  Bough,"  James  G.  Frazer,  M.A., 
London,  1890,  vol.  i.  pp.  385,  386. 

CERUMEN    OR    EAR-WAX. 

Pliny  speaks  of  its  use  in  medicine  (lib.  xxviii.  cap.  7)  ;  Galen  does 
also.  Flemming  recommended  its  internal  use  in  colic  and  cramps ; 
and  externally  as  an  application  to  wounds.  —  ("De  Remediis,"  etc., 
p.  22.) 

Paullini  was  of  the  opinion  that  a  good  salve  for  sore  eyes  could  be 
prepared  from  ceriimen  (pp.  42,  43). 

''  The  excrement  of  the  ears,  like  unto  a  yellow  oyntment,  is  a  great 
comfort  in  the  pricking  of  the  sinews." —  (Von  Helmont,  "Oritrika," 
English  translation,  London,  1662,  p.  247.) 

Galen  thought  that  ear-wax  was  efficacious  in  the  cure  of  whit-nails  ; 
the  other  "  sordes"  were  also  employed,  but  he  would  not  write  about 
them,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  them,  — such  as  the 
perspiration  flowing  in  the  bath,  or  scraped  from  the  body  after  severe 
exercise ;  and,  finally,  the  fatty  matter  of  wool  was  of  medicinal  value, 
and  seemed  to  have  the  same  properties  as  butter.  —  (Galen,  "  Opera 
Omnia,"  lib.  xii.  p.  309,  Kuhn's  edition,  Leipzig,  1829.) 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  349 

woman's  milk. 

Woman's  milk  mitigated  redness  of  eyes  and  inflammation  of  the 
lachrymal  glands  ;  it  should  be  used  with  vitriol.  For  "  gutta  serena  " 
it  was  applied  as  an  ointment ;  in  cases  of  atrophy  it  was  regarded  by 
many  as  of  commendable  utility,  especially  if  drawn  from  the  woman's 
breast ;  the  same  treatment  was  a  specific  in  obstinate  hiccough. 

A  butter  prepared  from  woman's  milk  was  used  in  diseases  of  chil- 
dren, especially  colic,  and  in  ocular  affections.  (See  Flemming,  "  De 
Remediis,"  etc.,  p.  18.)  Its  remedial  efficacy  forms  the  basis  of  Pliny's 
c.  21,  lib.  xxviii. ;  if  possible,  it  should  be  that  of  a  woman  who  had  just 
borne  male  twins.  "  If  a  person  is  rubbed  at  the  same  time  with  the 
milk  of  both  mother  and  daughter,  he  will  be  proof  for  all  the  rest  of 
his  life  against  all  affections  of  the  eyes.  .  .  .  Mixed  with  the  urine  of 
a  youth  who  has  not  yet  arrived  at  puberty,  it  removes  ringing  in  the 
ears." —  (Idem.) 

"  Matricis  vulneribus  confert.  .  .  .  lac  mulieris."  —  (Avicenna,  vol.  i. 
p.  337,  a  36.) 

The  Empress  of  China  took  the  milk  of  sixty  wet  nurses  to  keep 
herself  alive,  according  to  Mr.  Frank  G.  Carpenter. 

Woman's  milk  is  still  used  in  the  rude  trephining  of  the  African 
Kabyles  as  a  dressing.  —  (See  "  Prehistoric  Trephining,"  by  Dr.  Robert 
Fletcher,  in  vol.  v.  "  Contributions  to  North  American  Ethnology," 
Washington,  D.  C,  1882.) 

HUMAN    SWEAT. 

Human  perspiration  was  believed  to  be  valuable  not  only  as  a  means 
of  prognosis  in  some  diseases,  but  its  appearance  was  dreaded  in  others. 
If  the  perspiration  of  a  fever-stricken  patient  was  mixed  with  dough, 
baked  into  bread,  and  given  to  a  dog,  the  dog  would  catch  the  fever, 
and  the  man  recover.  It  was  efficacious  in  driving  away  scrofulous 
wens,  and  in  rendering  philters  abortive.  It  was  narrated  that  if  a  man, 
who  under  the  influence  of  a  philter,  was  forced  to  love  a  girl  against 
his  will,  would  put  on  a  pair  of  new  shoes,  and  wear  them  out  by  walk- 
ing in  them,  and  then  drink  wine  out  of  the  right  shoe,  where  it  could 
mingle  with  the  perspiration  already  there,  he  would  promptly  be  cured 
of  his  love,  and  hate  take  its  place. 

This  corresponds  closely  to  the  urine  case  already  noted  ;  and  it  is 
proper  to  repeat  Flemming's  own  words  on  the  matter  :  "  Narrant 
quod,  si  quis  philtro  fascinatus  era  fuerit,  ad  amandam  prseter  volun- 


350  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

tatem  virginem,  ut  is  noves  induat  calces,  miliareque  unurn  obarabu- 
lando  conficiat,  quo  sudor  animadvertatur  postque  viimm  e  calceodextri 
pedis  sudore  madido,  hauriat,  sic  ab  illicito  amore  liberari  amoremque 
iu  odium  converti  dicunt."  —  ("  De  Remediis,"  p.  19.) 

See  Etmuller,  who  used  it  in  scrofula,  lib.  ii.  p.  265  ;  Pliny,  lib.  28  • 
Galen  and  Avicenna  (sweat  of  gladiators),  vol.  i.  p.  398,  a  17,  and 
elsewhere. 

SUPERSTITIONS   CONNECTED    WITH    THE   CATAMENIAL   FLUID. 

For  the  opinions  entertained  by  the  ancients  regarding  its  occult 
powers,  read  Pliny  (Bohn's  edition),  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  23,  and  again  lib. 
viii.  cap.  13.  "On  the  approach  of  a  woman  in  this  state,  must  will 
become  sour,  seeds  whicli  are  touched  by  her  become  sterile,  grafts 
wither  away,  garden-plants  are  parched  up,  and  the  fruit  will  fixll  from 
the  tree  beneath  which  she  sits  ;  .  .  .  a  swarm  of  bees  if  looked  upon 
by  her  will  die  immediately,  brass  and  iron  will  immediately  become 
rusty.  .  .  .  Dogs  tasting  the  cataraenial  fluid  will  go  mad.  ...  In  ad- 
dition to  this,  the  bitumen  which  is  found  at  certain  periods  of  the  year 
floating  on  the  Lake  of  Judea,  known  as  Asphaltites,  —  a  substance  which 
is  peculiarly  tenacious,  and  adheres  to  everything  it  touches,  —  can  only 
be  divided  into  separate  pieces  by  a  thread  which  has  been  dipped  into 
this  virulent  matter."  (Lib.  vii.  cap.  13,  and  again  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  23.) 
In  a  footnote  it  is  stated  that  both  Josephus  ("  Bell.  Jud.,"  lib.  iv.  cap.  9) 
and  Tacitus  (lib.  v.  cap.  6)  give  an  account  of  this  supposed  action  of  this 
fluid  on  the  bitumen  of  Lake  Asphaltites.  "  Hail-storms,  they  say,  whirl- 
winds, and  lightning  even,  will  be  scared  away  by  a  woman  uncovering 
her  body  merely,  even  though  menstruating  at  the  time."  (Lib.  xxviii. 
cap.  2.3.)  Menstruating  women,  in  Cappadocia,  perambulated  the  fields 
of  grain  to  preserve  them  from  worms  and  caterpillars.  (Idem.) 
"Young  vines,  too,  it  is  said,  are  injured  irremediably  by  the  touch  of 
a  woman  in  this  state ;  and  both  rue  and  ivy  plants,  possessed  of  highly 
medicinal  virtues,  will  die  instantly  upon  being  touched  by  her.  .  .  . 
The  edge  of  a  razor  will  become  blunted  on  coming  in  contact  with 
her."  —  (Idem.) 

"  All  plants  will  turn  pale  upon  the  approach  of  a  woman  who  has 
the  menstrual  discharge  upon  her."  (Pliny,  lib.  xix.  cap  57.)  The  same 
opinion  prevailed  in  France  down  to  our  own  times.     (Idem,  footnote.) 

"  Expiations  were  made  with  the  menstrual  discharge,  .  .  .  not  only 
by  midwives,  but  even  by  harlots  as  well"  (lib.  xxviii.  cap.  20). 

Froramann  cites  Aristotle  and  Pliny  in  reference  to  the  maleficent 


I 


ORDURE   AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  351 

effects  of  the  menses  and  of  the  uncanuiness  of  a  menstruating  woman. 
Aristotle  said  her  glance  took  the  polish  out  of  a  mirror,  and  the  next 
person  looking  into  it  would  be  bewitched.  Frommann  quotes  a  man 
who  said  he  saw  a  tree  in  Goa  which  bad  withered  because  a  cata- 
menial  napkin  had  been  hung  in  it.  —  ("  Tractatus  de  Fascinatione," 
Xuremburg,  1675,  pp.  17,  18.) 

"  Stains  upon  a  garment  made  with  the  catamenial  fluid  can  only  be 
removed  by  the  agency  of  the  urine  of  the  same  female."  —  (Pliny, 
lib.  xxviii.  cap.  24.) 

"  An  Australian  black  fellow  who  discovered  that  his  wife  had  lain 
on  his  blanket  at  her  menstrual  period,  killed  her,  and  died  of  terror 
himself  within  a  fortnight.  Hence  Australian  women  at  these  times 
are  forbidden  under  pain  of  death  to  touch  anything  that  men  use." 
("The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  170.  He  supplies  other  ex- 
amples from  the  Eskimo  and  the  Indians  of  North  America.  *'  Tinneh," 
etc.,  p.  170).  In  the  following  example  we  are  not  certain  that  the 
young  women  selected  were  undergoing  purgation,  but  there  is  some 
reason  for  believing  that  such  was  the  case,  especially  in  view  of  the 
general  dissemination  of  the  ideas  connected  with  the  catamenia. 
"  In  a  district  of  Transylvania,  when  the  ground  is  parched  with 
drought,  some  girls  strip  themselves  naked,  and,  led  by  an  older 
woman,  who  is  also  naked,  they  steal  a  harrow  and  cairy  it  across  the 
field  to  a  brook,  where  they  set  it  afloat.  Next  they  sit  on  the  har- 
row, and  keep  a  tiny  flame  burning  on  each  corner  of  it  for  an  hour ; 
then  they  leave  the  harrow  and  go  home.  A  similar  rain-charm  is 
resorted  to  in  India ;  naked  women  drag  a  plough  across  the  field  by 
night." —  ("The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  17.) 

For  all  bites  of  centipedes  the  people  of  Angola,  Portuguese  and 
negroes,  apply  the  catamenial  fluid.  This  remedy  is  implicitly  believed 
in  by  all  concerned.  —  (Rev.  Mr.  Chatelain,  missionary  to  Angola, 
Africa.) 

For  the  Inuit,  see  "  Les  Primitifs,"  Eeclus,  Paris,  1885. 

The  dread  felt  by  the  American  Indians  on  this  subject  is  too  well 
known  to  need  much  attention  in  these  pages ;  it  corresponds  in  every 
respect  to  the  particulars  recited  by  Pliny.  Squaws,  at  the  time  of 
menstrual  purgation,  are  obliged  to  seclude  themselves  ;  in  most  tribes 
they  are  compelled  to  occupy  isolated  lodges  ;  and  in  all  are  forbidden 
to  prepare  food  for  any  one  but  themselves. 

It  is  believed  that  were  a  menstruating  woman  to  step  astride  of  a 
rifle  or  a  bow  or  a  lance,  the  weapon  would  have  no  further  utility. 


352  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

Medicine-men  are  in  the  habit  of  making  a  saving  clause,  whenever  thej 
proceed  to  make  "medicine;"  this  is  to  the  effect  that  the  "medi- 
cine "  will  be  all  right  provided  no  woman  in  this  peculiar  condition 
be  allowed  to  approach  the  tent  or  lodge  of  the  officiating  charlatan. 

Among  the  Navajoes  of  Arizona  it  is  customary  for  the  women  to 
wear  a  strip  of  sheep-skin,  called  a  "  chogan  ;  "  when  the  necessity  for 
its  use  has  disappeared,  the  woman  goes  outside  of  the  village  and  con- 
ceals it  in  the  forks  of  one  of  the  cedar  or  juniper  trees  so  numerous  in 
the  mountains.  The  author  once  found  one  of  these  ;  but  the  people 
with  him  were  impressed  with  the  idea  that  no  good  would  come  from 
being  near  it.  At  another  time  he  knew  of  a  young  boy  who  had  been 
hit  by  a  "  chogan  "  which  had  been  dislodged  by  a  wind-storm.  He 
was  almost  frantic  with  terror,  and  devoted  three  or  four  days  to  sing- 
ing and  to  washing  in  a  "  sweat-bath." 

The  Ostiaks  of  Siberia  would  seem  to  have  the  same  ideas  on  this 
subject  as  the  Apaches  and  Navajoes  have.  —  (See  Pallas,  "  Voyages," 
vol.  iv.  p.  95.) 

Danielus  Beckherius  informs  his  readers  that  menstrual  blood  was 
used  in  medicine  (pp.  23  et  seq.)  ;  philters  were  prepared  from  it  (idem, 
p.  341).  "Zenith  juvencarum  sc.  sanguines  menstruum"  were 
given  for  epilepsy,  — that  is,  the  first  menses  of  a  girl  (idem,  p.  42). 
The  lint  of  the  napkin  itself  was  thus  given  also  (idem),  —  "litura 
pannorum  menstruorum  datur  patienti  sanari  morbum  comitialium." 
The  first  napkin  used  by  a  healthy  virgin  was  preserved  for  use  in 
cases  of  plague,  malignant  carbuncles,  etc.,  dampened  with  water  and 
laid  on  the  part  affected  ;  also  used  in  erysipelas  (idem,  p.  43,  "  Med. 
Microcosmus  ").  Dried  catamenia  were  given  internally  for  calculi, 
epilepsy,  etc.,  and  externally  for  podagra  ;  they  were  also  used  in  treat- 
ment of  the  plague,  for  carbuncles,  aposthumes,  being  placed  thereon 
with  a  rag  wet  with  rosewater  or  oil,  into  v.hich  menstrual  fluid  had 
been  poured ;  it  was  good  as  a  cosmetic  to  drive  away  pimijles  (p.  265). 

To  restrain  an  immoderate  flow^  of  the  menses  a  napkin  was  saturated 
with  menstrual  blood,  and  then  kept  for  a  certain  time  in  an  aperture 
made  in  the  bark  of  a  cherry-tree.  "  Ad  immodicum  menstruorum 
fluxum  cohibendum  sunt  qui  pannum  menstruumo  sanguine  imbutum 
certo  tempore  cerasi  radice  in  cortice  apertse  indunt,  incisuramquc 
iterum  operiunt."— (Etmuller,  "Op.  Omnia;"  Schrod.  ''Dil.  ZooL," 
vol.  ii.  p.  265.) 

Paullini  prescribes  the  "  dried  catamenia  of  women  "  for  the  cure  of 
kidney  diseases  (pp.  142,  1  43),  also  for  ring-worm,  felons,  menstrual 


J 


ORDURE  AND   URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  353 

troubles.  Frommann  gives  the  same  cure  for  immoderate  menses,  by 
placing  the  napkin  in  a  cherry-tree.  —  (See  "  Tract,  de  Fascinatioue," 
p.  1006.) 

"Excoriationi  conferunt.  .  .  .  sanguis  menstruus."  —  (Avicenna, 
vol.  i.  p.  388.) 

According  to  Flemming,  menstrual  blood  was  believed  to  be  so 
powerful  that  the  mere  touch  of  a  menstruating  women  would  render 
vines  and  all  kinds  of  fruit-trees  sterile  (herein  he  seems  to  be  follow- 
ing Pliny).  It  was  believed  to  be  valuable  medicinally  in  relieving 
obstructions  to  the  menstrual  flow  of  other  women  ;  even  the  soiled 
smock  of  a  woman  who  had  menstruated  happily  was  efficacious  in 
assisting  another  woman  whose  menses  for  any  cause  were  retarded. 
A  small  portion  of  the  menses,  dried  and  taken  internally,  mitigated 
the  ailment  known  as  dysmenorhoea.  Flemming  states  that,  while  in 
his  time  this  remedy  had  been  gradually  superseded,  its  use  was  still 
kept  up  among  the  poor  and  ignorant,  in  erysipelas,  face-blotches,  and 
as  an  ingredient  in  an  ointment  for  podagra  or  gout.  —  ("DeReme- 
diis,"  pp.  16,  17.) 

The  Laplanders  "  say  that  they  can  stop  a  vessel  in  the  middle  of  its 
course,  and  that  the  only  remedy  against  the  power  of  this  charm  is 
the  sprinkling  of  female  purgations,  the  odor  of  which  is  insupportable 
to  evil  spirits." — ("Regnard's  Journey  to  Lapland,"  in  Pinkerton, 
vol.  i.  p.  180). 

"  To  cure  a  young  woman  of  consumption  she  was  given  monthly 
discharges  to  drink." —  ("  Dutchess  County,  New  York,"  1832,  Mr. 
Joseph  Y.  Bergen,  Jr.,  Cambridge,  ilass.) 

*'  Isaiah  compareth  our  justice  "  panno  menstruatse." —  (Harington, 
"  Ajax,"  p.  24.) 

"  Crines  foeminse  menstruosse,  the  haires  of  a  menstruous  woman 
are  turned  into  serpents  within  short  space."  —  (Scot,  "  Discoverie," 
p.  221.) 

"  Men  have  a  special  objection  to  see  the  blood  of  women  at  certain 
times ;  they  say  that  if  they  were  to  see  it  they  would  not  be  able  to 
fight  against  their  enemies  and  would  be  killed."  (Mrs.  James  Smith, 
"  The  Roandik  Tribes,"  p.  5.)  Hence,  although  bleeding  is  a  common 
Australian  cure  among  men,  women  are  not  allowed  to  be  bled. 
(Angas,  vol.  i.  p.  3.)  This  aversion  is  perhaps  the  explanation  of  that 
seclusion  of  women  at  puberty,  childbirth,  etc.,  which  has  assumed 
different  forms  in  many  parts  of  the  world." —  ("  Totemism,"  Frazer, 
p.  54,  footnote.) 

23 


354  SCATALOGIC   KITES    OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

Old  women  were  suspected  of  using  the  first  menstrual  flow  of  a 
young  girl  in  love-philters.  —  (Samuel  Augustus  Flemming,  "  De 
Kemediis.") 

*'  For  colic  take  the  scrapings  of  the  nails  of  a  catemenial  virgin, 
mix  with  water,  and  take."  —  (Sagen-Miirchen,  Volksaberglauben  aus 
Sc.hwaben,  Freiburg,  18G1,  p.  487.) 

There  were  many  curious  ideas  prevalent  in  olden  times  as  to  the 
manner  in  whicli  the  basilisk  or  cockatrice  could  be  engendered.  "  Si 
Ton  place  dans  une  gourde  de  verre  du  sang  menstruel,  et  si  Ton  fait 
putrifier  celui-ci  dans  le  ventre  d'un  cheval,  il  en  nait  un  basilic."  — 
("  Melusine,"  Paris,  January-February,  1890,  p.  19.) 

Although  the  Israelites  had  many  notions  in  common  with  the 
American  Indians  on  the  subject  of  the  catamenial  fluid,  and  the 
seclusion  of  women  undergoing  purgation,  there  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  any  eflfort  made  to  preserve  or  to  hide  the  cloths  used  on  such 
occasions.  Thus  the  Prophet  Isaiah  (Ixiv.  G)  says  of  the  idols  of  the 
Gentiles  that  they  must  be  cast  aside  as  the  napkins  soiled  with  the 
menses.  "  Hoc  est  disperges  ea  (de  idolis  loquitur)  sicut  immundi- 
tionem  menstruatse."  —  (Contributed  by  Doctor  Robert  Fletcher.) 

References  to  use  of  the  catamenial  fluid  in  witchci'aft  will  be  found 
in  Beckherius,  quoting  Josephus 

"Hiawatha,  wise  and  thoughtful, 
You  shall  bless  to-night  the  corn-fields. 
Draw  a  magic  circle  round  them, 
To  protect  them  from  destruction. 

**  Rise  up  from  your  bed  in  silence, 
Lay  aside  your  garments  wholly. 
Walk  around  the  fields  you  planted, 

"  Covered  with  your  tresses  only. 
Robed  with  darkness  as  a  garment.' 
("Hiawatha,"  Longfellow,  canto  xiii.,  "Blessing  the  Com-Fields.") 

Menstruating  women  were  excluded  from  the  Jewish  synagogues  and 
from  the  communion  table  of  the  early  Christian  Church  :  "  Menstru- 
atse mulieres  superstitiose  excluste  ab  ecclesia." — (Baronius,  '*An- 
nales,"  Lucca,  1758,  tome  3,  266,  xi.) 

AFTER-BIRTH    AND    LOCHI^ffi. 

Both  of  these  were  used  medicinally ;  the  lochiae  were  useful  in  re- 
straining uterine  hemorrhages;  after-birth,  dried  and  powdered,  de- 


ORDURE   AND   URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  356 

prived  love-philters  of  their  power;  it  was  used  as  an  anti-epileptic, 
to  relieve  retention  of  the  menses,  etc.  (See  Flemming,  "  De  Remediis," 
p.  17.)  Secundines  were  used  in  the  treatment  of  epilepsy.  —  (See 
EtmuUer,  vol  ii.  p.  265). 

HUMAN    SEMEN. 

Etrauller  knew  nothing  of  the  remedial  value  of  human  semen  be- 
yond the  fact  that  Paracelsus  had  recommended  its  use  in  some  cases 
(vol.  ii.  p.  272). 

Pliny  mentions  the  use  of  human  semen  as  a  medicine  (lib,  xxviii.  c. 
10). 

The  savage  Australians  have  "a  last  and  most  disgusting  remedy 
.  .  .  deemed  infallible  in  the  most  extreme  cases."  .  .  "  Mulierem  ob 
juventutem  firmitatemque  corporis  lectam  sex  vel  plures  viri  in  locum 
baud  procul  a  castris  remotum  deducant.  Ibique  omnes  deinceps  in 
ilia  libidinem  explent.  Tum  mulier  ad  pedes  surgere  jubetur  quo 
facilius  id  quod  maribus  excepit  effluere  possit.  Quod  in  vase  collectum 
segrotanti  ebibendum  praebent."  The  aborigines  have  unbounded 
faith  in  this  truly  horrible  dose,  and  enumerate  many,  many  instances 
where  it  has  effected  marvellous  cures.  We,  however,  have  known  of 
its  having  been  administered  in  several  cases  without  the  remotest 
revivifying  result.  It  may  be  that  this  fluid  is  —  in  fact  some  savants 
positively  assert  that  it  is  so  —  the  very  essence  of  life,  as  well  as  con- 
taining the  germs  thereof,  and  that  administering  a  draught  thereof  to 
a  patient  slowly  but  surely  dying  from  exhaustion,  consequent  upon  a 
long  fit  of  illness  (the  illness  itself  having  died  out  or  been  cured) 
might  have  the  wonderful  effect  detailed  so  positively  by  the  natives ; 
but  this  is  a  question  for  physicians  to  decide."  —  ("  The  Abor.  of 
Victoria  and  Riveriua,"  Melbourne,  1889,  p.  55,  P.  Beveridge,  received 
through  the  kindness  of  the  Royal  Soc,  Sydney,  N.  S.  Wales,  F.  B. 
Kyngdon,  Secretary.) 

"  Impetigine  conferunt  .  .  .  sperma."  —  (Avicenna,  vol.  i.  p.  330, 
a  10.) 

For  gout  Avicenna  prescribed  "  Sanguis  menstruus,"  "  Sperma 
hominis "  (vol.  i.  p.  330,  a  12;  idem,  a  13);  "Sanguis  menstruus 
calidus  "  (vol.  i.  p.  388,  b  9) ;  also  "  Stercus  caprarum  "  (vol.  i.  p.  390, 
a  13).  Consult  also  what  has  been  said  of  this  secretion  under  "  Love- 
philters." 


356  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 


HUMAN    BLOOD. 

The  medicinal  employment  of  human  blood  is  described  by  Pliny 
(lib.  xxviii.  cap.  105). 

Beckherius  says  that  human  blood  was  employed  in  the  treatment 
of  epilepsy.  Faustina,  the  wife  of  the  philosophical  emperor,  Marcus 
Antoninus,  anxious  to  have  a  child,  drank  the  warm  blood  of  a  dying 
gladiator,  and  then  shared  her  husband's  bed,  and  at  once  became  preg- 
nant, and  brought  forth  the  cruel  Commodus.  Human  blood  was  also 
used  in  effecting  "sympathetic  cures."  —  ("  Medic.  Microcos."  pp.  122, 
128.) 

But  it  was  essential  that  the  human  blood  so  employed  should  be 
pure  and  undefiled ;  lovers  who  wished  to  increase  the  affection  of 
their  mistresses,  were  recommended  to  try  an  infusion  of  their  own 
blood  into  the  loved  one's  veins.  The  blood  of  man  and  also  that  of 
some  animals,  notably  the  dog,  sheep,  etc.,  were  employed  in  mania, 
delirium,  cancer,  etc.  The  method  of  transfusion  was  preferred. 
Epileptics  would  sometimes  drink  a  draught  of  the  warm  blood  caught 
gushing  from  the  neck  of  a  decapitated  criminal ;  the  blood  of  a  man, 
just  decapitated,  drunk  warm,  cured  epilepsy  and  restrained  uterine 
hemorrhage.  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  p.  272.) 

Grimm  alludes  to  the  fact  that  the  blood  of  innocent  maids  and  boys 
was  used  as  a  remedy  for  leprosy ;  that  of  malefactors,  in  epilepsy. 
—  ("Tent.  Mythol."  vol.  iii.  p.  1173.) 

See  the  discussion  of  this  matter  under  the  caption  of  "  Human 
Skulls."  Consult  the  work  "Blood-Covenant,"  by  Dr.  H.  C.  Trum- 
bull. 

In  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  empress  Faustina,  see  "  History  of 
the  Inquisition,"  Henry  C.  Lea,  N.  Y.  1889,  vol.  iii.  p.  391. 

HUMAN    SKIN,    FLESH,    AND    TALLOW. 

Girdles  of  human  skin  were  regarded  as  efficacious  in  helping  women 
in  labor;  Etmuller,  in  his  "Comment.  Ludovic."  disapproves  of  their 
use,  but,  in  another  part  of  his  works,  describes  how  and  for  what  pur- 
poses they  were  to  be  employed. 

"Corium  humanum  et  ex  inde  paratum  cingulum  magni  est  usu  in 
Buffocatione  uterina  arcenda,  uti  etiam  in  pellendo  ftjeto  mortuo,  item 
in  partu  difficile  "  (vol.  ii,  p.  272). 

References  to  such  girdles  or  belts,  called  "cingulae"  or  "chiro- 


ORDURE  AND  URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  357 

thecse  "  are  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Samuel  Augustus  Flemming 
and  others. 

Human  flesh,  of  corpses,  was  administered  under  the  name  of 
"Mummy."  (See  Beckherius,  "Med.  Microcos."  p.  263  e<  sej.)  He 
enumerates  no  less  than  fifty  prescriptions  for  all  sorts  of  ailments. 
The  "  mummy "  should  be  from  a  malefactor,  hanged  on  a  gibbet, 
never  buried,  and  the  age  should  have  been  between  25  and  40,  of 
good  constitution,  without  organic  or  other  diseases,  and  gathered  in 
clear  weather. 

Human  flesh  occurs  in  recipes  in  "The  Chyrurgeon's  Closet,"  Lon- 
don, 1632,  pp.  6,  53. 

Andrew  Lang  refers  to  the  use  of  "  mummy  powder  "  by  the  physi- 
cians of  the  Court  of  Charles  11.  —  ("  Myth,"  etc.  vol.  i.  p.  96.) 

Human  tallow  was  employed  in  medicine,  rendered  from  the  skin 
and  other  parts.  It  was  regarded  as  efficacious  in  eradicating  small- 
pox pustules,  while  an  "  oleum  Philosophorum  "  was  distilled  from  it 
and  held  in  high  repute  for  tumors,  catarrhal  troubles,  affections  of  the 
ear,  etc.  —  (Flemming,  "De  Remediis,"  p.  9.) 

Human  flesh  '  mumia,"  was  recommended  in  the  preparation  of  the 
best  "  Paracelsus  salve.  .  .  .  Ptecommeuded  for  cure  of  bruises  and 
against  congealed  blood.  .  .  .  Most  excellent  and  most  approved 
medicines." 

HUMAN   SKULL.  —  BRAIN. MOSS   GROWING   ON   HUMAN   SKULL. MOSS 

GROWING    ON    STATUE. LICE. 

Democritus  thought,  in  his  Memoirs,  quoted  by  Pliny,  that  "  the 
SauII  of  a  malefactor  is  most  efficacious.  .  .  .  "While,  for  the  treatment 
of  others,  that  of  one  who  has  been  a  friend  or  guest  is  required." 
(Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  c.  2.)  .  .  .  Skull  of  a  man  who  has  been  slain," 
and  "  whose  body  remains  unbumt.  .  .  .  Skull  of  a  man  who  has  been 
hanged."  —  (Idem.) 

"  Xenocrates,  who,  says  Galen,  flourished  two  generations  or  sixty 
years  before  him,  writes  with  an  air  of  confidence  on  the  good  effects 
to  be  obtained  by  eating  of  the  human  brain,  flesh,  or  liver ;  by  swal- 
lowing in  drink  the  burnt  or  unbumt  bones  of  the  head,  shin,  or  fingei-s 
of  a  man,  or  the  blood."  —  ("Saxon  Leechdoms,"  lib.  i.  p.  18.) 

"  Against  a  boring  worm  .  .  .  burn  to  ashes  a  man's  head-bone  or 
skull;  put  it  on  with  a  pipe."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  127,  article  "Leech 
Book.") 

Paracelsus  gives  the  recipe  for  distilling  "  The  Oyle  of  the  Skull  of  a 


358  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Man.  .  .  .  Take  the  skull  of  a  man  that  was  never  buried,  and  beate  it 
into  powder.  ("The  Secrets  of  Physicke,"  Theophrastus  Paracelsus, 
Eug.  transl.  Loudon,  1633,  p.  97.)  "The  dose  is  three  grains  against 
the  falling  sickness."  —  (Idem.) 

Schurig  notes  that  the  human  skull  is  a  remedy  for  the  falling  sick- 
ness. —  (See  "  Chylologia.") 

The  skull  of  a  man  was  used  for  diseases  of  men ;  that  of  a  woman, 
for  diseases  of  women.  —  (See  "  Rare  Secx-ets  in  Physicke,"  collected 
by  the  Comtesse  of  Keut,  Loudon,  1654,  p.  3.) 

Beckherius  prescribed  it  in  cephalic  affections,  epilepsy,  paralysis, 
apoplexy,  vertigo,  etc.,  taken  in  powder,  or  raw,  simply  or  in  combina- 
tion.—  ("  Medicus  Microcosmus,"  p.  199  et  seq.) 

But  the  skull  was,  preferentially,  "  Cranii  humani  nunquam 
sepulti"  (p.  217);  or,  "Cranii,  humani  violenter  mortui  "  (p.  266). 
Moss  from  such  a  skull  was  also  used  medicinally  (idem,  p.  237).  If 
possible,  it  should  be  that  of  a  man  who  had  been  executed  on  a 
scaffold,  "  patibula." 

"  Powder  of  a  man's  bones,  burnt,  chiefly  of  the  skull  that  is  found 
in  the  earth,  given,  cureth  the  epilepsy.  The  bones  of  a  man  cureth  a 
man,  the  bones  of  a  woman,  cureth  a  woman."  But  the  patient  had 
to  abstain  from  wine  for  nine  days.  —  ("  The  Poor  Man's  Physician," 
John  Moncrief,  Edin.  1716,  p.  70.) 

"  Os  hominis  adustum,"  a  cure  for  epilepsy  (Avicenna,  vol.  i.  p.  330 
a  18);  "Mumia"  (idem,  vol.  i.  p.  357,  a  55);  "Ossa  hominis  in  potu 
data"  (idem,  vol.  i.  p.  371,  a  6). 

Epilepsie.  "  Take  pilles  made  of  the  skull  of  one  that  is  hanged." 
—  (Reg.  Scot.  "  Disco verie,"  p.  175.) 

The  skulls  of  ancestors  were  used  as  drinking  cups  by  the  Tibetans, 
according  to  Rubruquis,  in  Purchas  (vol.  i.  p.  23). 

"Among  primitive  people  the  head  is  peculiarly  sacred."  —  ("The 
Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  187.) 

Dr.  Bernard  Schaff  gives  the  following  formula  for  the  cure  of 
fevers  :  "  Take  a  human  skull  from  among  those  not  enclosed  in  tombs, 
and  calcine  it  in  a  crucible  or  in  the  open  fire ;  administer  in  doses  of 
from  one  scruple  to  half  a  dram  an  hour  or  two  before  the  paroxysm 
of  the  fever."  He  adds  that  among  the  common  people  the  belief 
prevailed  that  the  skull  should  be  obtained  at  the  early  dawn  of  day, 
about  the  time  of  the  winter  solstice,  and  with  the  ceremonies  (sacris) 
peculiar  to  that  season,  that  it  should  be  picked  up  in  silence ;  but  for 
his  part  he  does  not  believe  in  such  things. 


ORDURE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  359 

"  Recipitur  cranium  humanum  ex  ipsis  qnoque  sepulchrorum  claii- 
stris  depromptum  (vulgus  addit  tempore  matutino  ante  Solia  ortuiu 
sub  sacris  angeronce,  hoc  est,  ore  tacito,  aufFeratur,  quod  tamen,  cum 
aliquam  sapere  videatur  superstitionem,  imitari  nolui)  et  vel  igne 
aperto,  vel  in  crucibulo,  calcinatur,  usquedem  coloreni  acquirat  cineri- 
tium  pulverisatum  hocce  cranium  adhibetur  a  9  i.  ad  3 ;  i.  vel  ii.  horas 
ante  paroxysmi  principio."  —  ("  Ephem.  Phys.  Medic,"  Leipzig,  1G94, 
vol.  ii.  p.  93.) 

The  skull  of  a  malefactor  who  had  died  on  the  scaffold  or  wheel, 
and  which  had  been  exposed  in  the  open  air  long  enough  to  make  it 
perfectly  dry  and  white,  was  considered  a  specific  in  epilepsy,  being  much 
superior  for  that  purpose  to  the  skulls  obtained  from  graveyards. 

Soldiers  thought  that  if  they  drank  from  a  human  skull  before  going 
into  battle  they  would  secure  immunity  from  the  weapons  of  the  enemy. 
This  belief  undoubtedly  came  into  Europe  with  the  Scythians. 

"  Milites  putant,  si  quis  ex  cranio  humano  hauriat  potum  fore  ut  sit 
immunis  ab  insultis  armorum."  —  (Etrauller,  vol.  ii.  p.  268,  269.) 

Etmuller  also  shows  that  these  skulls  were  ground  up  and  adminis- 
tered to  epileptic  patients,  many  modes  of  preparation  and  administra- 
tion being  given. 

Flemming  wrote  that  human  skull  was  considered  a  potent  remedy 
in  all  ailments  for  which  practitioners  would  administer  human  brain, 

—  that  is,  in  nerve  troubles  and  in  epilepsy.  Preferably,  the  skull 
should  be  taken  from  a  corpse  which  had  died  a  violent  death,  — 
"  Quae  e  cadavere  violenta  morte  extincto  est  desumta."  It  was  an 
ingredient  in  many  preparations  bearing  the  high-sounding  titles 
of  "majesterium  epilepticum,"  ''specificum  cephalicuni,"  etc.  As  a 
powder,  ground  raw  or  calcined,  it  was  sometimes  administered  as  a 
febrifuge  and  in  paralysis.  —  ("  De  Remediis,"  p.  10.) 

Mr.  W.  W.  Rockhill  states  that  the  Lamas  of  Thibet  use  skulls  in 
their  religious  ceremonies,  but  reject  those  which  smell  like  human 
urine.     "  Blood  of  a  dead  man's  skull "  used  to  check  hemorrhage. 

—  (Pettigrew,  "  Med.  Superst.,"  p.  113.) 

"  There  is  a  divination-bowl,  —  an  uncanny  object,  made  of  the  in- 
verted cranium  of  a  Buddhist  priest."  —  ("  Tidbits  from  Tibet,"  in  the 
"Evening  Star,"  Washington,  D.  C,  Nov.  3,  1888,  describing  the 
W.  W.  Rockhill  collection  in  the  National  Museum.) 

Before  the  coming  of  the  whites  the  savages  of  Australia  employed 
human  skulls  as  drinking-vsssels,  —  "  human  skulls  with  the  sutures 
stopped  up  with  a  resinous  gum."  —  ("  Native  Tribes  of  S.  Australia," 


360  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Adelaide,  1879,  received  through  the  kindness  of  the  Royal  Society, 
Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  F.  B.  Kyngdou,  Secretary.) 

"The  powder  of  a  man's  bones,  and  particularly  that  made  from  a 
skull  found  in  the  earth,  was  esteemed  in  Scotland  as  a  cure  for  epi- 
lepsy. As  usual,  the  form  runs  that  the  bones  of  a  man  will  cure  a 
man,  and  the  bones  of  a  woman  will  cure  a  woman.  Grose  notes  the 
merits  of  the  moss  found  growing  upon  a  human  skull,  if  dried  and 
powdered  and  taken  as  snuff,  in  cases  of  headache."  (Black,  "  Folk- 
Medicine,"  p.  96.)  He  also  informs  us  that  the  same  beliefs  and  the 
same  remedy  obtained  in  England  and  Ireland. 

"  Among  the  articles  which  may  be  regarded  more  as  household 
furniture  .  .  .  are  the  dried  human  skulls,  which  are  found  wrapped 
in  banana-leaves  in  the  habitation  of  nearly  every  well-regulated  Dyak 
family.  They  are  hung  up  on  the  wall,  or  depend  from  the  roof.  The 
lower  jaw  is  always  wanting,  as  the  Dyak  finds  it  more  convenient  to 
decapitate  his  victim  below  the  occiput,  leaving  the  lower  jaw  attaclied 
to  his  body." —  ("  Head-Hunters  of  Borneo,"  Carl  Bock,  London,  1881, 
p.  199.) 

The  careful  manner  in  which  the  Mandans  preserved  the  skulls  of 
their  dead,  as  narrated  by  Catlin,  is  recalled  to  mind. 

MOSS    GROWING    ON    HUMAN    SKULLS. 

The  medicinal  use  of  the  moss  growing  on  the  skulls  of  those  who 
had  died  violent  deaths  is  mentioned  by  Von  Helmout.  —  ("  Oritrika," 
p.  768.) 

Etmuller  speaks  of  the  iisnea,  or  moss,  growing  on  the  skull  of  a 
malefactor,  which  was  given  in  cases  of  epilepsy  (vol.  ii.  p.  273). 

Flemming  regarded  such  moss,  if  taken  from  the  skull  of  a  malefac- 
tor, who  had  been  hanged  or  broken  on  the  wheel,  as  of  great  effi- 
cacy in  epilepsy,  in  bram  troubles,  and  as  a  styptic  for  hemorrhages 
(p.  11). 

Such  a  moss,  if  dried,  powdered,  and  taken  as  snuff,  will  cure  the 
headache." — (Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  277,  article 
"  Physical  Charms,"  quoting  Grose.  The  same  reference  is  given  by 
Pettigrew,  "  Medical  Superstitions,"  p.  86.) 

HUMAN    BRAIN. 

The  human  brain,  dissolved  or  distilled  in  spirits  of  wine,  was  em- 
ployed in  nerve  troubles  and  as  an  anti-epileptic.  —  (Flemming,  "De 
Remediis  ex  Corpore  Humano  desumtis,"  p.  10.) 


ORDURE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  361 


LICE. 

One  might  infer  that  habits  of  personal  cleanliness  did  not  prevail  in 
England  two  centuries  ago,  judging  from  the  terms  of  the  following 
prescription,  which  seemingly  takes  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the 
patient  could  at  any  time  obtain  the  insects  needed  :  — 

"  For  the  cure  of  sore  eyes  .  .  .  take  two  or  three  lice  out  of  one's 
head  ;  put  them  under  the  lid."  —  ("  Rare  Secrets  in  Physicke,"  col- 
lected by  the  Comtesse  of  Kent,  London,  1654,  p.  75.) 

The  author  of  this  work  knows,  from  disagreeable  personal  experi- 
ence and  observation,  that  the  Indians  of  North  America  very  generally 
were  addicted  to  the  disgusting  practice  of  cleaning  each  other's  heads 
and  putting  all  captured  prey  in  their  mouths.  Such  an  office  was 
considered  a  very  delicate  attention  to  be  paid  by  a  woman  to  her 
husband  or  lover,  or  from  male  friend  to  male  friend,  while  on  a  cam- 
paign. No  instance  was  noted  of  the  use  in  a  medical  sense  of  these 
troublesome  parasites. 

MOSS    GROWING    ON    THE    HEAD    OF    A    STATUE. 

"  It  is  asserted  that  a  plant  growing  on  the  head  of  a  statue  gath- 
ered in  the  lappet  of  any  one  of  the  garments,  and  then  attached  with 
a  red  string  to  the  neck,  is  an  instantaneous  cure  for  the  headache." 
(Pliny,  lib.  xxiv.  c.  106.)  This  would  seem  to  be  germane  to  the  idea 
of  moss  growing  on  the  human  skull, 

WOOL. 

"  The  ancient  Piomans  attributed  to  wool  a  degree  of  religious  im- 
portance even ;  and  it  was  in  this  spirit  that  they  enjoined  that  the 
bride  should  touch  the  door-posts  of  her  husband's  house  with  wool." 
—  (Pliny,  lib.  xxix.  cap.  10.) 

"  In  Cumberland,  England,  a  reputed  cure  for  earache  is  the  appli- 
cation of  a  bit  of  wool  from  a  black  sheep,  moistened  in  cow's  urine. 
Possibly  it  is  a  modified  form  of  this  latter  notion  that  is  found  at 
Mount  Desert,  where  it  is  said  that  the  wool  must  be  wet  in  new  milk  ; 
while  in  Vermont,  to  be  efficacious,  it  is  thought  that  the  wool  must 
be  gathered  from  the  left  side  of  the  neck  of  a  perfectly  black  sheep. 
In  other  localities,  negro's  wool  is  a  reputed  cure  for  the  same  pain. 

It  seems  almost  incredible,  whatever  their  origin,  that  remedies  of  so 
offensive  a  character  as  many  of  those  above  given  can  still  retain  a 


362  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

place  even  in  the  rudest  traditional  pharmacopoeia ;  but  there  seems  to 
be  in  the  uneducated  human  mind  a  sort  of  reverence  for  or  faith  in 
that  which  is  in  itself  disagreeable  or  repulsive.  This  idea  apparentl}' 
rules  instead  of  rational  judgment  in  the  selection  of  many  popular 
remedies  in  the  shape  of  oils  of  the  most  loathsome  description,  such 
as  "  skunk-oil,"  "  angle-worm  oil"  (made  by  slowly  rendering  earth- 
worms in  the  sun) ,  "  snake-oil  "  of  various  kinds,  etc.  —  ("  Animal  and 
Plant  Lore,"  Mrs.  Fanny  D.  Bergen,  in  "  Popular  Science  Monthly," 
New  York,  September,  1888,  p.  658.) 

In  the  application  of  human  blood  and  human  skulls  just  presented, 
one  feature  must  be  patent  to  the  most  superficial  student ;  in  the 
treatment  of  epilepsy,  the  blood  or  the  skull  was,  preferentially,  to  be 
that  of  a  dying  gladiator  or  a  criminal.  There  was  evidently  a  reason 
for  this,  beyond  mere  expediency. 

Gladiatorial  games  were  instituted  as  sacred  games,  in  which  the 
victims  to  be  offered  in  sacrifice  were  determined  by  the  destiny  of 
the  combat.  Long  after  man's  better  reason  and  better  nature  had 
revolted  against  the  loathsome  rites  of  human  sacrifice,  religion  and 
custom  still  held  him  in  their  clutches.  He  would  not  offer  up  his 
own  progeny,  as  of  yore,  but  he  still  continued  to  immolate  captives 
taken  in  war,  as  so  many  gladiators  had  been,  or  offenders  against 
the  laws. 

The  victim  generally  shared  with  the  sacrificing  priest  the  honor 
of  representing  the  deity  in  whose  name  his  life  was  to  be  taken. 
Consequently  he  became  holy ;  everything  belonging  to  him  became 
"  medicine,"  and  in  no  disease  could  it  be  administered  more  effica- 
ciously than  in  epilepsy,  —  the  essentially  "  sacred  disease  "  (morbus 
sacer)  sent  direct  from  the  gods. 

Moreover,  criminals  executed  for  violations  of  the  laws  of  conquering 
nations,  or  for  infractions  of  the  discipline,  or  contempt  of  the  doctrines 
of  a  triumphant  religion,  might,  by  the  conquered  rustics,  who  still 
cherished  a  half-concealed  veneration  for  the  old  rulers  and  supplanted 
rites,  be  looked  upon  as  martyrs,  whose  bones,  blood,  and  crania 
would  relieve  disease  and  drive  away  misfortune. 

The  idea  of  sanctity,  too,  attached  to  "  iinioccnt  maids  and  boys," 
whose  undefiled  blood  might  rectify  the  polluted  fluid  that  coursed 
languidly  through  the  veins  of  the  leper. 

The  belief  that  the  gods  are  to  be  gratified  and  propitiated  by  the 
spectacle  of  human  suffering,  especially  when  self-inflicted,  has  been 


ORDURE   AND   URINE  IN   MEDICINE.  363 

current  from  the  first  ages  of  the  world,  and  will  most  probably  last, 
iu  one  form  or  another,  as  long  as  the  world  shall  last.  It  has  cropped 
out  in  every  shape,  from  the  rigorous  abstinence  of  the  ascetic  to  the 
brutal  flagellation  of  the  fanatical  devotee,  and  from  that  to  the  emas- 
culation of  the  Galli,  the  Khlysthi,  and  the  Hottentot,  and  the 
self-immolation  of  the  servant  of  Juggernath.  Maurice  enumerates 
five  different  kinds  of  meritorious  suicide  yet  recognized  in  Hindostan, 
and  we  have  no  reason  for  refusing  to  believe  that  our  own  ancestors 
were  saturated  with  the  same  false  notions,  which,  retaining  their 
hold  upon  the  minds  of  an  illiterate  peasantry,  would  surround  with 
the  mystery  of  holiness  any  act  of  self  destruction  attributable  to 
mania  or  other  impulse  supposed  to  be  from  on  high. 

BONES    AND    TEETH. MARROW. 

"  If  a  circle  is  traced  round  an  ulcer  with  a  human  bone,  it  will  be 
effectually  prevented  from  spreading." —  (Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  c.  11.) 

Etmuller  believed  that  by  the  use  of  an  unbroken  human  bone  it 
was  possible  to  induce  as  copious  a  purgation  as  might  be  desired. 
"  Beneficio  ossis  humani  integri  potest  fieri  purgatio  artificialis  tanta 
quantum  volumus,"  etc.  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  p.  273.) 

"  *  Holy  oyle  of  dead  men's  bones,'  good  for  the  *  falling  sickness.'  " 
—  ('•  The  Newe  Jewell  of  Health,"  George  Baker,  Chirurgeon,  Lon- 
don, 1576,  black  letter,  p.  170. 

Beckherius  prescribed  human  bones  iu  medicine.  —  (See  "Med.  Mi- 
crocos.,"  p.  252  et  seq.) 

Etmuller,  not  content  with  prescribing  the  bones  ground  into  pow- 
der, also  directed  the  administration  of  human  marrow  (vol.  ii.  p.  268). 

HUMAN    TEETH, 

"  A  tooth  taken  from  a  body  before  burial,"  worn  as  an  amulet, 
cured  toothache.  —  (Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  c.  12.) 

"The  first  tooth  that  a  child  has  shed,"  worn  as  an  amulet,  protects 
from  pain  in  the  uterus.  —  (Idem,  lib.  xxviii.  c.  7.) 

Pounded  dead  men's  teeth  were  used  in  fumigating  the  genitalia 
of  persons  "  ligated  "  by  witchcraft.  —  (See  Frommann,  "  Tract,  de 
Fascin.,"  p.  965.) 

Etmuller  taught  that  the  teeth  were  similar  to  the  bones,  and  used 
iu  the  alleviation  of  the  same  infirmities.  Those  drawn  from  the  jaws 
of  a  man  who  had  died  a  violent  death  were  highly  commended  for 


364  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

all  sickness  brought  on  by  witchcraft,  as  well  as  for  loss  of  virility. 
"  Ossibus  similes  sunt  deutes,  qui  ipsi  ex  homine  imprimis  violeuta 
raorte  interempto  coramendatur  ad  morbos  per  venelicium,  si  nimium 
et  illis  fiat  suffitus ;  item  in  impotentia"  (vol.  ii.  p.  273). 

"  Si  deutes  pueri,  imprimis  cum  cadunt,  suspendautur  antcquam  ad 
tcrram  deveniant  et  ponantur  in  lamina  argenti  et  suspendautur  supra 
mulieres  eas  pruhibeut  impregnari  et  parere  "  (idem,  p.  263). 

Teeth  are  worn  as  amulets  by  pregnant  women  or  ground  into 
powder,  and  taken  in  a  potion  ;  in  both  forms,  believed  to  be  useful  in 
averting  the  plague.  Powdered  teeth,  drunk  in  wine,  cured  epilepsy, 
and  restored  impaired  virility.  —  (Flemming,  "De  Remediis,"  p.  13.) 
■  "  Knock  a  tooth  that  is  pulled  out  into  the  bark  of  a  young  tree."  — 
(Grimm,  "Teutonic  Mythology,"  vol.  iii.  p.  1173.) 

Human  teeth,  bones,  and  other  parts  of  dead  bodies  are  still  used 
by  the  negroes  in  our  Southern  States  in  their  "  voudoo  "  ceremonies, 
and  as  charms,  in  the  old-time  belief  that  their  possession  secures  a 
man  invisibility.  See  an  article  on  this  subject  in  the  "  Evening 
Star,"  of  Washington,  D.  C,  January  1,  1889. 

"  In  North  Hants,  a  tooth  taken  from  the  mouth  of  a  corpse  is  often 
enveloped  in  a  little  bag  and  worn  around  the  neck  to  secure  the 
wearer  against  headache.  ...  In  the  northeast  of  Scotland,  the  suf- 
ferer was  required  to  pull  with  his  own  teeth  a  tooth  from  the  skull." 
—  ("Folk -Medicine,"  Black,  p.  98.) 

The  use  of  human  teeth  and  fingers  as  "charms,"  "amulets,"  and 
"medicine,"  will  be  treated  of  in  another  work,  at  greater  length.  At 
present  it  will  be  sufficient  to  call  attention  to  the  great  potency  asso- 
ciated in  the  minds  of  the  American  aborigines  with  such  relics.  The 
author  obtained,  in  one  of  General  Crook's  campaigns,  in  a  battle  with 
the  Northern  Cheyennes,  in  northern  Wyoming,  in  the  winter  of  1870, 
a  necklace  of  human  fingers,  the  prized  adornment  and  "  medicine  " 
of  the  chief  medicine-man.  This  curious  link  between  the  savagerj' 
of  America  and  the  superstitions  of  Europe  is  now  in  the  National 
Museum,  Washington,  D.  C 

Flemming  prescribed  the  ground  bones  of  criminals  (raw  or  burnt), 
as  an  internal  medicine  for  gout,  dysentery,  etc. ;  but  he  did  not  limit 
himself  to  human  bones,  as  he  expressly  states  that,  as  a  substitute, 
the  bones  of  horses,  asses,  or  other  beasts  could  be  employed.  ("  De 
Remediis,"  p.  12.) 


ORDURE  AND   UKINE   IN   MEDICINE.  365 


TARTAR   IMPURITIES    FROM   THE   TEETH. 

PauUini  goes  so  far  as  to  recommend  the  use  of  the  tartar  impurities 
from  the  teeth,  and  the  dirt  from  soiled  stockings,  as  a  remedy  for 
nose-bleed.     (Piiullini,  p.  52.) 

In  this  he  most  probably  follows  an  ancient  line  of  practice,  of 
which  other  authors  have  neglected  to  give  a  detailed  account.  Galen 
and  others  have  shown  that  the  scrapings  from  the  body,  and  all 
other  "sordes"  were  used  medicinally,  and  there  was  no  reason  why 
dental  tartar  should  not  be  added  to  the  materia  medica. 

RENAL    AND    BILIARY    CALCULI. HUMAN    BILE. 

Calculi  were  used  in  the  treatment  of  calculary  troubles  and  in 
childbirth.  —  (Pliny,  lib.  xxvii.  cap.  9.     See  also  Galen.) 

Prescribed  for  stone  in  the  bladder  or  kidneys  by  Beckherius.  — 
("Med.  Microcosmus,"  pp.  167-170.) 

Flemming  advocates  the  same  use  of  them.  —  ("  De  Remediis," 
p.  23.) 

"  A  man's  stone,  drunk  fasting,  is  most  powerful  of  any  to  break  the 
stone  and  expel  it  with  the  urine."  —  "The  Poor  Man's  Physician," 
Moncrief,  p.  131.) 

Flemming  also  used  biliary  calculi  in  the  cure  of  yellow  jaundice. 
—  ("De  Remediis,"  p.  14.) 

Human  bile  was  used  internally  in  epilepsy,  and  externally  in  deaf- 
ness and  ulcerations  of  the  ear.  —  (Idem.) 

BEZOAR    STONES. LYNCURIUS. 

From  the  most  ancient  times  there  were  used  in  the  medical  prac- 
tice of  Europe  certain  stones,  known  as  belemnites,  thunder-stones, 
lyncurius,  etc.,  believed  to  be  efficacious  in  treatment  of  stone  in  the 
bladder.  This  lyncurius  was  regarded  as  the  coagulated  urine  of  the 
lynx,  and  under  that  phase  of  the  case  properly  comes  within  the  scope 
of  this  volume.  —  (See  "  Pomet  on  Drugs,"  English  translation,  Lon- 
don, 1738,  p.  408.) 

The  "  bezoar "  stone,  so  frequently  alluded  to  by  old  writers,  was 
simply  excrementitious  matter  hardened  in  an  animal's  stomach. 

COSMETICS. 

Pigeon's  dung  was  applied  externally  for  all  spots  and  blemishes  on 
the  face.    (Pliny,  lib.  xxx.  cap.  9.)    Mouse-dung,  externally,  for  lichens. 


3G6  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

(Idem.)  "Brand  Marks  "  (stigmata)  were  removed  by  using  pigeon's 
dung  diluted  in  vinegar.  (Idem,  lib.  xxx.  cap  10.)  Crocodile-dung,  or 
"  crocodilea,"  removed  blemishes  from  the  face.  (Idem,  lib.  xxxviii. 
caps.  29,  50.)     It  also  removed  freckles. 

'*  An  application  of  bull-dung,  they  say,  will  impart  a  rosy  tint  to 
the  cheeks,  and  not  even  crocodilea.  is  better  for  the  purpose."  — 
(Idem,  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  50.) 

Galen  alludes  to  the  extensive  use  as  a  cosmetic,  by  the  Greek  and 
Eoman  ladies,  of  the  dung  of  the  crocodile ;  in  the  same  manner,  the 
dung  of  starlings  that  had  been  fed  on  rice  alone  was  employed.  — 
(Galen,  "  Opera  Omnia,"  Kuhn's  edition,  lib.  xxx.  p.  308.) 

Dioscorides  prescribed  crocodile-dung  as  a  beautifier  of  the  faces  of 
women.  —  ("  Mat.  Med.,"  vol.  i.  p.  222  et  seq.) 

BviU-dung  was  used  by  women  as  a  cosmetic  to  remove  all  facial 
blemishes. —  (Sextus  Placitus,  "  De  Med.  ex  Animal.,"  article  "  De 
Tauro.") 

The  urine  of  a  boy  took  away  freckles  from  a  face  washed  with  it. 
"  Ad  profluvium  mulieris,  si  locum  saepe  lotio  viri  laverit."  For  birth- 
marks ou  children  take  the  crust  which  gathers  on  urine  standing  in 
chamber-pots,  break  up  and  bake  ;  place  the  child  in  the  bath,  and 
rub  the  marks  well.  "  Ad  maculas  infantium,  matellae  quae  crustem 
ex  lotio  duxerint,  fractae  et  coctae,  in  balneo  infantem,  si  ex  eo  un- 
xeris  omnia  supra-scripta  emendat." — (Idem,  *' De  Puello  et  Puella 
Virgine.") 

Beckherius  approved  of  the  use  of  the  meconium  of  infants  to  erase 
birthmarks.  —  ("Med.  Microcos.,"  p.  113.) 

Etmuller  states  that  from  cow-dung,  as  well  as  from  human  ordure, 
by  repeated  digestion  and  distillation  and  sublimation,  was  prepared 
"  Zibethum  Occidentale,"  so  named  by  Paracelsus.  From  this  was 
distilled  the  "  water  of  all  flowers,"  so  termed  because  the  cattle  had 
eaten  so  many  flowers  in  their  pasturage.  This  was  passing  good  as  a 
cosmetic  to  remove  pimples  and  all  kinds  of  blotches. 

Human  ordure  itself  was  made  use  of  for  the  same  purpose  (vol.  ii. 

p.  171). 

"  'T  is  stale  to  have  a  coxcomb  kiss  your  hands 
While  yet  the  chamber-lye  is  scarce  wiped  off." 
("  Ram  Alley,"  Ludowick  Barry,  London,  1611,  edition  of  London,  1825.) 

Dog-urine  was  prescribed  to  restore  the  color  of  the  hair.  —  (Avi- 
cenna,  vol.  ii.  p.  333,  a  50.) 


ORDUKE  AND  URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  367 

"  Alopecia  "  (baldness)  was  cured  by  mouse-dung  (idem,  vol.  i.  p.  360, 
b50),  and  by  "stercus  caprarum."  —  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  389,  b  .53.) 

"  Urina  canis  putrefucta  conservat  nigredinem  capillorum."  —  (Idem, 
vol.  ii.  p.  333,  a  50.) 

Reclus  says  that  even  now,  in  Paris,  many  people  who  have  within 
reach  the  best  of  toilet  waters  prefer  to  use  urine  as  a  detersive.  — 
(See  "  Les  Primitifs,"  p.  72,  "  Les  Inoits  Occidentaux.") 

The  Ove-herero,  living  south  of  Angola,  West  Africa,  rub  their 
bodies  with  dry  cow-dung  to  impart  lustre.  —  ("  Muhongo,"  interpreted 
by  Rev.  Mr.  Chatelain.) 

"  Aqua  omnium  florum  "  was  distilled  from  the  dung  of  cows  dropped 
in  the  month  of  May.  "  Verno  sen  Maiali  tempore  ...  ex  stercore 
recenti  vaccse  herbas  depascentis."  (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  p.  249.)  "  Ex 
hoc  ipso  stercore,  eodem  modo  atque  ex  stercore  humano  per  diges- 
tionem  et  sublimationem,  repetitam  potest  preparari  Zibethum  Occi- 
dentale,  sic  dictum  a  Paracelso,  quoniam  suavem  spirat  instar  Zibethi. 
Destillatur  aqua  ex  hoc  stercore  quae  vocatur  aqua  omnium  florum, 
quia  bos  innumeris  floribus  vescitur  ;  haec  aqua  omnium  florum  est 
singulare  cosmeticum  applicatum  externe  delendis  naevis  et  maculis  in 
fticie."  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  ii.  pp.  249,  250.) 

Some  people  added  to  this  a  "  water  distilled  from  the  sperm  of 
frogs."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  171,  172.) 

Catamenial  blood  was  supposed  to  be  a  remedy  for  pimples  on  the 
face.  (Idem,  p.  265.)  In  portions  of  Northern  Mexico  the  women 
apply  it  to  their  faces  as  a  beautifier. 

Cow-dung  was  very  generally  relied  upon  in  this  sense.  The  dung 
of  a  black  cow  entered  into  the  composition  of  the  celebrated  "  Eau  de 
Mille  Fleurs."  The  ordure  of  small  lizards  was  also  used  to  smooth 
out  the  wrinkles  from  the  faces  of  old  women. 

Fox-dung  and  the  dung  of  sparrows  and  starlings  were  in  use  for 
softening  the  hands.  Arabian  women  use  as  a  cosmetic  a  mixture  of 
saffron  and  chicken-dung.  Cow-dung  is  sometimes  as  aromatic  as 
musk.  It  used  to  be  employed  to  restore  the  odor  to  old  and  faded 
musk,  or  to  hang  the  latter  in  a  privy,  where  it  would  re-acquire 
its  former  strength ;  but  would  not  retain  it  long  (see  under 
"Latrines"). 

To  improve  the  complexion  Paullini  recommended  a  water  dis- 
tilled from  human  excrements  ;  also  the  worms  that  grow  therein 
distilled  to  a  water.  The  cosmetic  of  country  wenches  is  their  own 
urine. 


368  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Hiinifin  excrements  have  peculiar  salts  more  strengthening  and  use- 
ful tiian  soap.  A  young  girl  improved  her  complexion  wonderfully  by 
washing  her  face  in  cow-dung  and  drinking  her  brother's  urine  fresh 
and  warm,  while  fasting  (pp.  263,  264). 

Other  cosmetics  commended  by  Paullini  were  human  ordure,  exter- 
nally ;  the  ordure  of  a  young  boy,  internally  ;  "  Eau  de  Millefleurs," 
the  excreta  of  lizards,  crocodiles,  foxes,  sparrows,  starlings,  chickens,  oi- 
of  cows  gathered  in  May,  externally. 

See  also  pages  172,  207. 

For  the  eradication  of  freckles  Paullini  also  recommended  the  exter- 
nal application  of  the  excrement  of  donkeys,  dogs,  chickens,  crocodiles, 
foxes,  or  pigeons. 

Scliurig  was  a  champion  of  "  Aqua  ex  stercore  distillata,"  for  all 
facial  embellishment.  —  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  762.) 

"  II  y  a  plus ;  les  fenimes  les  plus  belles  s'cn  sont  barbouille  le 
visage,  et  Saint  Jerome  le  reproche  durement  aux  dames  de  son 
temps."  In  a  footnote  is  added  this  explanation  :  "  On  a  employe 
des  excremens  de  quelques  lizards  d'Egypte  comme  cosmetique,  a 
cause  de  leur  odeur  musquee."  ("Bib.  Scat.,"  p.  21.)  "  Mcrde  de 
Lezard  c'est  le  cordilea,  excrement  du  stellion  du  Levant,  employe 
comme  cosmetique." —  (Idem,  p.  123.) 

"  Wash  the  face  with  the  diaper  on  which  a  new-born  babe  has 
urinated  for  the  first  time,  it  will  remove  freckles."  —  (Cape  Breton, 
Mrs.  Fanny  D.  Bergen,  Cambridge,  Mass.) 

This  belief  in  the  cosmetic  power  of  the  first  renal  discharge  of  a 
child  is  generally  diffused  all  over  the  United  States. 

"  Enfin,  les  nourrices  entre  nous,  ont  I'habitude  de  frotter  la  figure 
de  leurs  nourrissans  avec  les  langes  imbibes  de  leur  urine.  Cela  les 
fait  venir  beau,  disent-elles,  cela  combat  en  tout  cas,  certaines  efllorcsce- 
ments  cutances  chez  les  enfants,  par  I'ammoniaque."  —  (Personal 
letter  from  Doctor  Bernard,  Cannes,  France.) 

Prof  Patrice  de  Janon  states  that  the  ladies  of  his  native  place, 
Carthagena,  South  America,  to  his  personal  knowledge,  were  in  the 
habit  of  using  their  own  urine  as  a  face  lotion,  and  to  beautify  and 
soften  the  skin. 

Horse-dung  was  another  face  lotion.  —  ("  A  Rich  Storehouse  or 
Treasurie  for  the  Diseased,"    Ralph  Blower,  London,  1616,  p.  106.) 

Goose-dung  is  in  repute  in  the  State  of  Indiana  for  removing  pimples. 
—  (Mi's.  Bergen.) 

Mr.  Sylvester  Baxter  says  that  young  women  in  M.assachusetts,  at 


ORDURE  AND   URINE   IN   MEDICINE.  369 

least  until  very  recently,  have  employed  human  urine  as  a  wash  for 
the  preservation  of  the  complexion. 

"  Water  that  stands  in  the  concavity  of  a  patch  of  cow-dung  "  is  the 
belief  in  Walden,  Mass.,  according  to  Mrs.  Bergen,  who  thus  shows  a 
transplantation  of  the  same  belief  which  has  lingered  in  Europe  from 
remote  ages. 


24 


370  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


XLII. 

AMULETS  AND   TALISMANS. 

A  S  a  connecting  link  between  pharmacy  proper  and  the  antidotes  to 
the  effects  of  witchcraft,  and  at  the  same  time  fully  deserving  of  a 
separate  place  on  its  own  merits,  may  be  inserted  a  chapter  upon 
talismans  and  amulets  made  of  excrementitious  materials. 

"  From  the  cradle,  modern  Englishmen  are  taught  to  fight  an  angry 
battle  against  superstition,  and  they  treat  a  talisman  or  charm  with 
some  disdain  and  contempt.  But  let  us  reflect  that  those  playthings 
tended  to  quiet  and  reassure  the  patient,  to  calm  his  temper,  and  soothe 
his  nerves,  —  objects,  which,  if  we  are  not  misinformed,  the  best  practi- 
tioners of  our  own  day  willingly  obtain  by  such  means  as  are  left 
them. 

Whether  a  wise  physician  will  deprive  a  humble  patient  of  his  roll 
of  magic  words  or  take  from  his  neck  the  fairy  stone,  I  do  not  know  ; 
but  this  is  certain,  that  the  Christian  church  of  that  early  day,  and  the 
medical  science  of  the  empire  by  no  means  refused  the  employment  of 
these  arts  of  healing,  these  balms  of  superstitious  origin. 

"  The  reader  may  enjoy  his  laugh  at  such  devices,  but  let  him  remem- 
ber that  dread  of  death  and  wakeful  anxiety  must  be  hushed  by  some 
means,  for  they  are  very  unfriendly  to  recovery  from  disease."  —  ("Saxou 
Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  11.) 

Cat-dung,  "  to  be  attached  to  the  body  with  the  toe  of  a  horned 
owl  "  and  "  not  to  be  removed  until  the  seventh  paroxysm  is  passed," 
was  the  amulet  recommended  by  Pliny  for  the  cure  of  the  quartan 
fever. —  (Lib.  xxviii.  c.  66.) 

Sextus  Placitus,  "De  Puello  et  Puella  Virgine,"  recommends  the 
use  of  calculi  to  aid  in  the  expulsion  of  calculi,  either  ground  into  a 
powder  or  hung  about  the  patient's  neck  as  an  amulet ;  in  the  latter 
case,  he  says,  the  cure  is  more  gradual. 

Roman  matrons  used  a  small  stone  found  in  the  excrement  of  a  hind 
"attached  to  the  body  as  an  amulet,"  as  "a  preventive  of  abortion." 
—  (Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  c.  77.) 


AMULETS   AND  TALISMANS.  371 

In  retarded  dentition,  there  was  a  bag  suspended  from  the  infant's 
neck,  in  which  was  a  powder,  made  of  equal  parts  of  the  dung  of  hares, 
wolves,  and  crows.  —  (Schurig,  "  Chylologia,"  p.  820). 

"Wolf's  dung,  borne  with  one,  helps  the  colic."  —  (Burton,  "Anat- 
omy of  Melancholy,"  vol.  ii.  p.  134.) 

Burton,  in  his  "Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  1621,  p.  476,  has  the  fol- 
lowing passage  on  this  subject :  "Amulets  I  find  prescribed  ;  taxed  by 
some,  approved  by  others."  —  (Quoted  by  Brand,  "  Pop.  Aut."  vol.  ii. 
p.  324,  article  "  Amulets.") 

No  explanation  can  be  ventured  upon  for  the  following  charm,  which 
had  a  very  extended  dissemination  throughout  Europe,  and  can  be 
traced  back  to  "  Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  x.  p.  33. 

"  Many  magic  writings  are  simply  invocations  of  the  devil  ...  A 
woman  obtained  an  amulet  to  cure  sore  eyes.  She  refrained  from 
shedding  tears  and  her  eyes  recovered.  On  a  zealous  friend  opeuing 
the  paper,  these  words  were  found :  "  Der  teufel  kratze  dir  die  augeu 
aus,  uud  sclieisse  dir  in  die  locher,"  and,  naturally,  when  the  woman 
saw  that  it  was  in  this  she  had  trusted,  she  lost  faith,  began  to  weep 
again,  and  in  due  time  found  her  eyes  as  bad  as  ever,  ("Folk  Medi- 
cine," Black,  p.  171.)  The  same  charm  was  also,  in  other  places, 
written  in  Latin,  in  this  form  :  "  Diabolus  effodiat  tibi  oculos,  impleat 
foramina  stercoribus."  It  is  quoted  by  Pettigrew,  in  "  Medical  Supersti- 
tions, p.  102 ;  also  by  Brand,  "  Pop.  Ant."  vol.  iii.  p.  324,  article 
"Characts." 

Translated  into  English  it  is  thus  rendered  by  Eeginald  Scot:  — 

"  The  devil  pull  out  both  thine  eyes, 
Aud  etihs  in  the  holes  likewise." 

"Spell  the  word  backward  and  you  shall  see  this  charm."  —  ("Dis- 
coverie  of  witchcraft,"  London,  1651,  p.  178.) 

"  For  diphtheria,  a  poultice  consisting  of  the  fresh  excrement  of  the 
hog,  is  worn  about  the  neck  for  one  night.  (Fayette  County.)  — 
("Folk-Lore  of  the  Penn'a  Germans,"  in  "Journal  of  American  Folk- 
Lore,"  1889,  p.  29,  W.  J.  Hoffman,  M.  D.) 

For  diseases  in  the  kidneys,  as  an  amulet  xapajipaiaO,  which  means 
"viscera"  in  Hebrew:  "In  cubili  canis  urinam  faciat  qui  urinam  uou 
potest  continere,  dicatque  dum  facit,  ne  in  cubili  suo  urinam  ut  canis 
faciat."  —  ("  Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  31.  See  also  under  Grand 
Lama,  love -philters,  mistletoe,  witchcraft.) 

Each  and  every  one  of  the  remedies  inserted  here  under  the  title  of 


372  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

"  Witchcraft,"  might  with  perfect  propriety  have  been  comprehended 
under  the  caption  of  "  Pharmacy,"  but  the  intention  was  to  differentiate 
the  two  in  the  hope  of  attaining  greater  clearness  in  treatment.  Under 
"  Pharmacy,"  therefore,  have  been  retained  all  remedies  for  the  allevia- 
tion of  known  disorders,  while  under  "Witchcraft"  are  tabulated  all 
that  were  to  be  administered  or  applied  for  the  amelioration  of  ailments 
of  an  obscure  type,  the  origin  of  wliich  the  ignorant  sufferer  would  un- 
hesitatingly seek  in  the  malevolence  of  supernatural  beings  or  in  the 
machinations  of  human  foes  possessed  of  occult  influences.  Side  by 
bide  with  these,  very  properly  go  all  such  aids  as  were  believed  to 
insure  better  fortime  in  money-making,  travelling,  etc. 

"A  mixture  of  ape's-dung  and  chameleon-dung  was  applied  to  the 
doors  of  one's  enemy.  .  .  .  He  will,  through  its  agency,  become  the 
object  of  universal  hatred."  —  (Pliny,  lib,  xxviii.  c.  29.) 

"  The  excrements  (i.  e.  of  the  hyena)  which  have  been  voided  by 
the  animal  at  the  moment  when  killed,  are  looked  upon  as  counter- 
charms  to  magic  spells." —  (Idem,  c.  27.) 

"  For  young  girls  they  (i.  e.  the  magicians)  prescribe  nine  pellets  of 
hare's  dung  to  ensure  a  durable  firmness  to  the  breasts."  —  (Idem, 
c.  77.) 

Doctor  Dupouy  believes  that  when  the  Druids  "  were  forced  to  take 
refuge  in  dense  forests  far  removed  from  the  people,  persecuted  by  the 
Romans,  barbarians,  and  Christians,  they  progressively  became  magi- 
cians, enchanters,  prophets,  and  charmers,  condemned  by  the  Councils 
and  banished  by  the  civil  authority.  It  is  at  this  epoch  that  evil 
spirits  were  noticed  prowling  around  in  the  shadows  of  night  and  in- 
dulging in  acts  of  obscene  depravity.  ...  In  the  seventh  century 
Druidism  diasppeared,  but  the  practice  of  magic,  occult  art,  and  the 
mysterious  science  of  spirits  were  transmitted  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration but  lessened  in  losing  the  philosophical  character  of  ancient 
times."  —  ("  Le  Moyen  Age  Medical,"  or  its  translation,  "  Physicians 
in  the  Middle  Ages,"  T.  C.  Minor,  M.  D.,  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  p.  38.) 


"WITCHCRAFT.  373 


XLIII. 

WITCHCRAFT.  —  SORCERY.  —  CHARMS. —SPELLS.  —  IXCAN- 
TATIONS.  —  MAGIC. 

T^HERE  is  but  one  method  of  arriving  at  a  correct  understanding  of 
-*-  wliat  witchcraft  was,  as  known  to  civiHzed  communities,  and  tluit 
is  by  placing  it  under  the  lens  of  investigation  as  a  mutilated  and  dis- 
torted survival  of  a  displaced  religion. 

The  very  earliest  records  of  man's  thought,  the  alabaster  and  earthen 
tablets  of  Chaldea  and  Assyria,  allude  to  the  evil  eye,  to  incantations, 
and  to  the  fear  of  evil  spirits,  witches,  and  sorcerers. 

"  Nevertheless,  the  Chaldean  tablets  do  not  leave  us  without  any 
insight  into  witchcraft,  as  their  formulae  were  destined  to  counteract 
the  effects  of  the  sorceries  of  this  impious  art,  as  well  as  the  spontan- 
eous action  of  demons." — ("Chaldean  Magic,"  Francois  Lenormant, 
London,  1877,  p.  59  ;  for  the  Chaldean's  dread  of  the  Evil  Eye,  see 
the  same  work,  p.  61.) 

"One  fine  series  (i.  e.  of  Chaldean  tablets)  deals  with  remedies 
against  witchcraft."  —  ("The  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,"  George 
Smith,  New  York,  1880,  p.  28.) 

"  There  is  finally  a  third  species  of  magic,  thoroughly  diabolical  in 
character,  and  openly  acknowledging  itself  as  such.  This  kind  helps 
to  perpetuate.  .  .  by  still  believing  in  their  power  and  transforming 
them  into  dark  practices,  the  rites  of  adoration  of  the  ancient  gods, 
considered  as  demons  after  the  triumph  of  the  new  religion,  the  exclu- 
sive spirit  of  which  repudiates  all  association  with  the  remains  of  the 
old  worship.  The  enchanter  in  this  case,  far  from  considering  himself 
an  inspired  and  divine  personage,  consents,  provided  he  reaps  all  the 
benefit  of  his  magic  practices,  to  be  nothing  more  than  the  tool  of  the 
bad  and  infernal  powers.  He  himself  sees  devils  in  the  ancient  gods 
evoked  by  his  spells,  but  he  nevertheless  remains  confident  of  their 
protection  ;  he  engages  himself  in  their  service  by  compacts,  and  fan- 
cies himself  going  to  a  witch-dance  in  their  company.     The  greater 


374  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

part  of  the  magic  of  the  Middle  Ages  bears  this  character  and  perpet- 
uates the  popular  and  superstitious  rites  of  paganism  in  the  mysteri- 
ous and  diabolical  operations  of  sorcery.  It  is  the  same  with  the 
magic  of  most  Mussulman  countries.  In  Ceylon,  since  the  complete 
conversion  of  the  island  to  Buddhism,  the  ancient  gods  of  Sivaism  have 
become  demons,  and  their  worship  a  guilty  sorcer}'  practised  only  by 
enchanters."  —  ("Chaldean  Magic,"  Lenormant,  p.  77.) 

Human  and  animal  filth  are  mentioned  in  nearly  every  treatise  upon 
witchcraft,  under  three  different  heads  :  — 

Firstly,  as  the  means  by  which  the  sorcery  is  accomplished. 

Secondly,  as  the  antidote  by  which  such  machinations  are  frustrated. 

Thirdly,  as  the  means  of  detecting  the  witch's  personality. 

Much  that  might  have  been  included  within  this  chapter  has  been 
arranged  under  the  caption  of  "Love-Philters"  and  "Child-Birth," 
and  should  be  examined  under  those  heads. 

The  subject  of  amulets  and  talismans  is  another  that  is  so  closely 
connected  with  the  matter  of  which  we  are  now  treating,  that  it  must 
be  included  in  any  investigation  made  in  reference  to  it. 

Exactly  where  the  science  of  medicine  ended,  and  the  science  of 
witchcraft  began,  there  is  no  means  of  knowing ;  like  Astrology  and 
Astronomy,  they  were  twin  sisters,  issuing  from  the  same  womb,  and 
travelling  amicably  hand  in  hand  for  many  years  down  the  trail  of 
civilization's  development ;  long  after  medicine  had  won  for  herself  a 
proud  position  in  the  world  of  thought  and  felt  compelled  through 
shame  to  repudiate  her  less-fiivored  comrade  in  public,  the  strictest 
and  closest  relations  were  maintained  in  the  seclusion  of  private  life. 

Among  the  counter-charms  too  are  reckoned  the  practice  of  spitting 
into  the  urine  the  moment  it  is  voided."  —  (Pliny,  lib,  xxviii.  cap.  7.) 

"  Goat's  dung  attached  to  infants,  in  a  piece  of  cloth,  prevents  them 
from  being  restless,  female  infants  in  particular."  (Idem,  cap.  78.) 
This  was  probably  a  survival  from  times  still  more  ancient,  when  in- 
fants were  sometimes  suckled  by  goats,  and  it  was  a  good  plan  to  have 
them  thoroughly  familiarized  with  the  smell,  —  the  hircine  or  caprine 
odor. 

"  In  cases  of  fire,  if  some  of  the  dung  can  be  brought  away  from  the 
stalls,  both  sheep  and  oxen  may  be  got  out  all  the  more  easily,  and 
will  make  no  attempt  to  return."  —  (Idem,  cap.  81.) 

The  adepts  in  magic  expressly  forbid  a  person,  when  about  to  make 
water,  to  uncover  the  body  in  the  face  of  the  sun  or  moon,  or  to 
sprinkle  with  his  urine  the  shadow  of  any  oVyect  whatsoever.     Hesiod 


WITCHCEAFT.  375 

gives  a  precept  recommending  persons  to  make  water  against  an  ob- 
ject standing  full  before  them,  that  no  divinity  may  be  offended  by 
their  nakedness  being  uncovered.  Osthanes  maintains  that  every  one 
who  drops  some  urine  upon  his  foot  in  the  morning  will  be  proof 
against  all  noxious  medicaments." —  (Idem,  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  19.) 

The  adepts  in  the  magical  art  also  believed  that  "  it  is  improper 
to  spit  into  the  sea,  or  to  profane  that  element  by  any  other  of  the 
evacuations  that  are  inseparable  from  the  infirmities  of  human  nature." 
—  (Idem,  lib.  xxx.  cap.  6,  speaking  of  the  disinclination  of  the  Arme- 
nian magician,  Tiridates,  to  visit  the  Emperor  Xero  by  sea.) 

The  Thibetans  share  these  scruples.  Among  the  things  prohibited 
to  their  "  Bliikshuni,"  or  monks  and  nuns,  are  :  "Ne  pas  se  soulager 
dans  de  I'eau  quand  on  n'est  pas  malade,  n'y  cracher,  n'y  moucher  y 
vomir,  ni  y  Jeter  quoi  que  soit  de  sale."  —  ("  Pratimoksha  Sutra,"  trans- 
lated by  V.  W.  Rockhill,  Paris,  1884,  Soc.  Asiatiqne.) 

It  was  believed  that  a  dog  would  not  bark  at  a  man  who  carried 
hare's  dung  about  his  person.  —  (See  Pliny,  lib.  xxx.  cap.  53.) 

"  The  therionaca  .  .  .  has  the  effect  of  striking  wild  beasts  of  all 
kinds  with  a  torpor  which  can  only  be  dispelled  by  sprinkling  them 
with  the  urine  of  the  hyena."  (Idem,  lib.  xxiv.  cap.  102.)  The  hyena 
was  regarded  as  an  especially  "magical"  animal.  —  (Idem,  lib.  xxviii.) 

•'  The  magicians  tell  us  that,  after  taking  the  ashes  of  a  wild-boar's 
genitals  in  urine,  the  patieut  must  make  water  in  a  dog-kennel,  and 
repeat  the  following  formula  :  "  This  I  do  that  I  may  not  wet  my  bed, 
as  a  dog  does.'  "  —  (Idem,  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  60.) 

Some  of  these  ideas  would  appear  to  have  crossed  the  Atlantic.  In 
the  United  States,  a  generation  or  less  ago,  boys  were  wont  to  urinate 
"  criss-cross  "  for  good  luck,  and  were  careful  not  to  let  any  of  their 
wrine  fall  on  their  own  shadows.  —  (Col.  F.  A.  Seelye,  Anthropological 
Society,  and  others,  Washington,  D.  C.) 

In  Minden,  Westphalia,  Germany,  boys  will  urinate  criss-cross,  and 
SJiy,  "  Kreuspissen,  morgenstirbstein-Jude  "  ("  Let  us  piss  criss-cross, 
a  Jew  will  die  to-morrow").  —  (Personal  letter  from  Dr.  Franz  Boas, 
Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass.) 

"  Nor  ever  defile  the  currents  of  rivers  flowing  seaward,  nor  fountains, 
but  specially  avoid  it."  —  ("Opera  et  Dies,"  Rev.  J.  Banks,  London, 
1856,  p.  115.) 

"  Sorcerers  try  to  procure  some  of  a  man's  excrement,  and  put  it  in 
his  food  in  order  to  kill  him." — ("Muhongo,"  a  boy  from  Angola, 
Africa,  personal  interview,  interpretation  by  Eev.  Mr.  Chatelain.) 


376  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

**  Muhongo  "  also  said  that  to  "  add  one's  urine,  even  unintentionally, 
to  the  food  of  another  bewitches  that  other,  and  does  him  grievous 
harm." 

Democritus  says  of  the  stone  "  aspisatis : "  "  Patients  should 
wear  it  attached  to  the  body  with  camel's  dung."  (Quoted  in  Pliny, 
lib.  xxvii.  cap.  54.)  The  same  book  tells  us  that  stones  of  this  kind 
were  worn  generally  by  gladiators,  Milo  of  Crotona  being  mentioned 
:i3  one.     What  "  aspisatis  "  was  cannot  be  learned. 

"  Another  thing  universally  acknowledged,  and  one  which  I  am 
ready  to  believe  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  is  the  fact  that  if  the  door- 
posts are  only  touched  with  the  menstruous  fluid,  all  spells  of  the 
magicians  will  be  neutralized." —  (Pliny,  lib.  xxviii.  cap.  24.) 

"  Osthanes,  who  accompanied  Xerxes,  the  Persian  king,  in  his  expe- 
dition against  Greece,  .  .  .  the  first  person,  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain, 
who  wrote  upon  magic."  (Idem,  lib,  xxx.  cap.  3.)  He  adds,  speaking  of 
magic  :  "  Britannia  still  cultivates  this  art,  and  that  with  ceremonials 
so  august  that  she  might  almost  seem  to  have  been  the  first  to  com- 
municate them  to  Persia."  —  (Idem,  lib.  xxx.  cap.  4.) 

For  the  relief  of  infants  from  phantasm,  wrap  some  goat-dung  in  a 
cloth  and  hang  it  about  the  child's  neck.  "Ad  infantes  qui  fantasma- 
tibus  vexantur,  caprse  stercus  in  panno  involutum,  et  coUo  suspensmn 
remedium  est  infantibus  qui  fantasmata  patiuntur."  —  (Sextus  Placi- 
tus,  "  De  Capro.") 

"  With  Plinius  was  contemporary  Joseph  or  Josephus.  The  tales 
about  the  mandrake,  much  later  on,  and  found  in  the  Saxon  herliarium, 
are  traceable  to  what  he  says  of  the  Baaras,  —  an  herb  that  runs  away 
from  the  man  that  wants  to  gather  it,  and  won't  stop  until  one  throws 
on  it  ovpov  ywat/cos  ^  to  efxfjirjvov  aifxa,  for  nastiness  is  often  an  element 
of  mysteries  ;  and  even  then  it  kills  tlie  dog  that  draws  it  out.  It  is 
not  certain  that  mandrake  berries  are  meant  in  Genesis,  xxx.  14."  — 
("Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  16.) 

Dulaure  says  that  the  repute  in  which  mandrake  was  held  was  due 
to  its  resemblance  to  the  human  form,  and  to  the  lies  told  to  the 
superstitious  about  it,  one  being  that  "  ils  disent  qu'il  est  engeudre  des- 
sous  un  gibet  de  I'urine  d'un  larron  pendu."  —  ("  Des  Differens  Cultes," 
Paris,  1825,  vol.  ii.  p.  255,  footnote.) 

"  For  a  man  haunted  by  apparitions  work  a  drink  of  a  white  hound's 
thost  or  dung  in  bitter  ley  ;  wonderfully  it  healeth."  ("  Saxon  Leech- 
doms," vol.  i.  p.  3G5.)  This  same  "  thost,"  or  dung,  was  recommended 
in  the  treatment  of  nits  and  other  insects  on  children,  for  dropsy  (in- 


WITCHCRAFT.  377 

ternally),  and  to  drive  away  the  "Dwarves,"  who  were  believed  to  have 
seized  upon  the  patient  afflicted  with  convulsions. 

"  Doors  of  houses  are  smeared  with  cow-dung  and  nimba-leaves,  as  a 
preservative  from  poisonous  reptiles." — (Moor's  "  Hindu  Pantheon," 
London,  1810,  p.  23.) 

"  In  some  parts  of  Western  Africa,  when  a  man  returns  home  after 
a  long  absence,  before  he  is  allowed  to  visit  his  wife  he  must  wash  his 
pei'son  with  a  particular  fluid,  and  receive  from  the  sorcerer  a  certain 
mark  on  his  forehead,  in  order  to  counteract  any  magic  spell  which  a 
stranger  woman  may  have  cast  upon  him  in  his  absence,  and  which 
might  be  communicated  through  him  to  the  women  of  his  village,"  — 
("  The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  157.) 

We  are  not  informed  what  this  "  particular  fluid  "  was,  but  enough 
has  been  adduced  concerning  the  African's  belief  in  the  potency  of 
human  urine  in  cases  similar  to  the  above  to  warrant  the  insertion  at 
this  point. 

"  On  returning  from  an  attempted  ascent  of  the  great  African 
mountain,  Kilimanjaro,  which  is  believed  by  the  neighboring  tribes  to 
be  tenanted  by  dangerous  demons,  Mr.  'New  and  his  party,  as  soon  as 
they  reached  the  borders  of  the  inhabited  country,  were  disenchanted 
by  the  inhabitants,  being  sprinkled  with  '  a  professionally  prepared 
liquor,  supposed  to  possess  the  potency  of  neutralizing  evil  influences, 
and  removing  the  spell  of  wicked  spirits.'" — (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  151, 
quoting  Charles  New,  "  Life,  Wanderings,  and  Labors  in  Eastern 
Africa.") 

That  the  Eskimo  believed  in  the  power  of  human  ordure  to  baffle 
witchcraft  would  seem  to  be  intimated  in  the  following  from  Boas  : 
"  Though  the  Angekok  understood  the  schemes  of  the  old  hag,  he  fol- 
lowed the  boy,  and  sat  down  with  her.  She  feigned  to  be  very  glad  to 
see  him  and  gave  him  a  dishful  of  soup,  which  he  began  to  eat.  But 
by  the  help  of  his  tornaq  [that  is,  the  magical  influence  which  aided 
him]  the  food  fell  right  through  him  into  a  vessel  which  he  had  put  be- 
tween his  feet  on  the  floor  of  the  hut.  This  he  gave  to  the  old  witch, 
and  compelled  her  to  eat  it.  She  died  as  soon  as  she  had  brought  the 
first  spoonful  to  her  mouth."  —  ("  The  Central  Eskimo,"  Franz  Boas, 
in  "  Sixth  Annual  Report  "  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washington.) 

"  Osthanes,  the  magician,  prescribed  the  dipping  of  our  feet,  in  the 
morning,  in  human  urine,  as  a  preventative  against  charms."  — 
(Brand,  "  Pop.  Ant.,"  vol.  iii.  p.  286.) 

Frommann  writes  that   human  ordure,  menses,   and   semen  were 


378  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

mixed  in  the  food  of  the  person  to  be  bewitched.  —  ("  Tractatus  de 
Fascinatione,"  p.  G83.) 

On  another  page  this  list  is  increased  to  read  that  human  ordure, 
urine,  blood,  hair,  nails,  bones,  skulls,  and  the  moss  growing  on  the 
last-named,  as  well  as  animal  excrement,  were  among  the  materials 
employed  in  witchcraft."  —  (Idem,  p.  684.) 

If  fried  beans  be  thrown  into  excrement,  for  each  bean  thus  wasted 
a  pustule  will  appear  on  the  fundament  of  the  thrower.  "  Pisa  frixa 
injecta  excrementis  tot  pustulas  in  podice  excitant  quot  pisa." 
(Idem,  p.  1023.)  The  following  passage  is  not  fully  understood  : 
"  Vesicatorio  excrementis  adhuc  calentibus  imposito  intestina  corro- 
sione  afficiuntur."  It  seems  to  mean  that  the  entrails  will  be  affected 
wnth  corrosion  when  hot  excrement  is  placed  in  a  bladder,  probably 
after  the  manner  of  some  of  the  sausages  of  which  we  have  elsewhere 
taken  notes.  Hot  ashes  or  cinders  thrown  upon  recently  voided 
excrement  will  cause  inflammation  and  pustules  in  ano.  For  the  same 
reason  we  can  cause  those  who  are  absent  to  purge  without  using 
medicine  upon  them.  "  Cineres  calidi,  vel  prunse  candentes  scybalis 
recentibus  injecta  inflammationem  et  pustulas  in  ano  excitant.  .  .  . 
Eadera  ratione  absentes  sine  medicamentis  purgari  posse,  scribit  Tile- 
mannus  de  Mater.  Medic,  p.  251.  (Idem,  p.  1623.)  Frommann  also 
adds  that  this  fact  was  well  known  to  the  English  and  French,  as  well 
as  to  the  Germans." —  (Idem,  p.  1037.) 

Human  ordure  and  urine  were  burned  with  live  coals  as  a  potent 
charm.  The  person  whose  excreta  had  been  burned  would  suffer  ter- 
rible pains  in  the  rectum.  But  this  could  be  used  in  two  ways, 
for  love  as  well  as  hatred  could  be  induced  by  this  means,  between 
married  people  and  between  old  friends.  —  (Paullini,  pp.  264,  26.5.) 

For  the  use  of  urine  by  the  Eskimo  to  ward  off  the  maleficence  of 
witches,  turn  back  to  citations  taken  from  Pink's  "  Tales  and  Tra- 
ditions of  the  Eskimo,"  where  it  is  shown  that  they  still  use  it  with 
this  object  in  cases  of  childbirth.  See,  also,  the  notes  taken  from  the 
writings  of  Dr.  Franz  Boas. 

A  bone  from  the  leg  or  thigh  of  a  man  who  had  died  a  violent 
death,  emptied  of  its  marrow,  and  then  filled  with  human  ordure, 
closed  up  with  wax,  and  placed  in  boiling  water,  compelled  the  unfor- 
tunate ejector  of  the  excrement  to  evacuate  just  as  long  as  the  bone 
was  kept  in  the  water,  and  it  could  even  be  so  used  that  he  would  be 
compelled  to  defile  his  bed  every  night.  *'  Os  ex  pede,  vel  brachio,  vcl 
femore  hominis  violenta  morte  interempti,  et  hoc  exempta  medulla 


WITCHCRAFT.  370 

impletur  cum  stercore  alicujus  horainis,  foramina  obturantur  cum  cera 
et  sic  in  aquam  calidam  immittitur,  hoc  quamdiu  jacet  in  aqua  calida, 
tamdiu  expurgatur  iste,  cujus  stercus  fuit  inclusum,  adeo  ut  sic  ali- 
quem  usque  ad  mortem  purgare  possimus,  potest  etiam  fieri  alio  modo 
ut  quis  omni  nocte  lectum  suum  maculet,  sed  est  ludicrum."  — (Et- 
muller,  vol.  ii.  pp.  272,  273.) 

The  small  bones  of  the  human  leg  are  used  in  the  sorcery  of  the 
Australians.  (See  "  Native  Tribes  of  South  Australia,"  Adelaide, 
1879,  p.  276  ;  received  through  the  kindness  of  the  Eoyal  Society, 
Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  F.  B.  Kyngdon,  Secretary.) 

"  In  order  to  produce  a  flux  in  the  belly,  it  was  only  necessary  to 
put  a  patient's  excrement  into  a  human  bone,  and  throw  it  into  a 
stream  of  water."  The  above  is  quoted  from  the  medical  writings  of 
"Peter  of  Spain,  who  was  archbishop,  and  afterwards  pope,  under  the 
name  of  John  XXI." —  ("  Physicians  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  T.  C. 
Minor,  p.  6.) 

Schurig  names  many  authors  to  show  that  in  cases  of  "  incivility," 
such  as  the  placing  of  excrement  at  the  door  of  one's  neighbor,  the 
person  offended  had  a  sure  remedy  in  his  own  hands.  He  was  to  take 
some  of  the  excrement  of  the  offending  party,  mix  it  with  live  coals 
or  hot  ashes,  and  throw  it  out  in  the  street ;  or  he  could  burn  pepper 
and  wine  together,  with  such  fecal  matter ;  or  he  could  heat  an  iron 
to  white  heat,  insert  it  in  the  excrement,  and  as  fast  as  it  cooled 
repeat  the  operation ;  as  often  as  this  was  done,  so  often  would  the 
guilty  one  suffer  pains  in  the  anus.  Other  remedies  were,  to  mix 
spirits  of  wine  and  salt  together,  sprinkle  upon  the  offensive  matter, 
then  place  a  red-hot  iron  above  it,  and  confer  the  same  pains,  which 
would  not  leave  the  offending  person's  anus  during  the  whole  of  that 
day,  unless  he  cured  himself  with  new  milk.  Or  small  peas  could  be 
heated  in  a  frying-pan,  and  then  thrown  out  with  fresh  excrement ;  as 
many  as  there  were  peas,  so  many  would  be  the  pains  endured  by  the 
delinquent.  The  following  are  some  of  the  paragraphs  in  the  original 
from  Schurig  :  "  Contra  incivilitatem  quorundam  qui  loca  consueta  et 
fores  aliorum  stercoribus  suis  commaculant,  pro  coiTectione  inservire 
potest,  si  fimus  eorundem  simpliciter  prunis  aut  cineribus  calidis  in- 
jectus  vel  etiam  vino  adusto  et  pipere  simul  insperso  uratur  vel  cre- 
metur;  aut  si  vero  vel  aliud  ferrum  in  ignem  ut  ignescat,  immittatur, 
ac  dein  ferrum  illud  candens  in  excrementa  ilia  infigatur  ;  frigefactum 
denuom  calefiat  eademque  opera  ssepe  repetatur ;  tunc  tantis  cruciati- 
bus  nates  depositoris  illius  incivilito  vexabit,  quantas  vix  prunae  ipsse 


380  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

partibus  iisdem  admotae  inussissent.  .  .  .  Excrementis  hominis  rc- 
centibus  pruiias  candeiites  vel  cineres  culidos  injectos  inflammationem, 
teuesinmm,  et  pustulas  excitare,  non  Anglis  et  Gallis  tantiim  sed  et 
Germanis  atque  ex  his  nostratibus  etiam  est  notissimuni,"  etc.  The 
names  of  the  authorities  cited  by  Schurig  are  not  repeated.  —  ("  Chy- 
lologia,"  pp.  790,  791.) 

"  The  Australians  believe  that  their  magicians  '  possess  the  power ' 
to  create  disease  and  death  by  burning  what  is  called  'nahak.' 
Niihak  means  rubbish,  but  principally,  refuse  of  food.  Everj'thing  of 
the  kind  they  bury  or  throw  into  the  sea,  lest  the  disease-makers 
should  get  hold  of  it."  ("Native  Tribes  of  South  Australia," 
Adelaide,  1879,  p.  23.)  Reference  to  "Nahak"  is  to  be  found  iu 
"  Samoa,"  Turner,  p.  320. 

The  old  home  of  the  Cheyennes  of  Dakota  was  in  the  Black  Hills ; 
and  there  the  Sioux  believed  that  the  Cheyennes  were  invincible, 
because  their  medicine-men  could  make  everything  out  of  buffalo 
manure. —  (Personal  Notes  of  Captain  Bourke.) 

Although  Livingston's  "  Zambesi  "  is  filled  with  allusions  to  witch- 
craft, there  is  no  instance  given  of  the  employment  of  any  of  the 
remedies  herein  described. 

*'  The  belief  in  witchcraft,  and  in  the  efficacy  of  charms  and  incan- 
tations, was  strong  among  the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  Germany 
about  forty  years  ago.  ...  In  the  winter  of  1845-46,  I  attended  a 
night-school  in  my  native  town,  Schomdorf,  in  the  little  kingdom  of 
Wurtemburg.  There  was  a  blacksmith-shop  in  the  near  neighborhood 
of  the  school,  where  work  was  kept  up  until  a  late  hour  of  the  night. 
The  miniature  fireworks  created  by  the  sparks  flying  from  the  blows  of 
the  immense  hammers  wielded  by  the  dusky  and  weird-like  forms  of  the 
sous  of  Vulcan,  were  one  of  the  principal  amusements  of  the  schoolboys, 
and  we  used  to  stand  at  a  distance  in  the  dark,  before  school  opened, 
gazing  with  awe  and  wonderment  at  the  brilliant  and  noisy  scene  before 
us.  The  master  blacksmith,  on  account  of  his  irascible  disposition,  was 
not  much  in  favor  with  us,  and  it  was  agreed  upon  to  play  him  a  trick. 
So  one  evening  while  the  smiths  were  at  their  supper  and  the  smithy 
imattended,  two  of  the  boys  smeared  the  hammer-handles  with  excre- 
ment. The  indignation  of  the  smiths  was  of  course  great,  and  with 
curses  and  imprecations  on  the  guilty  parties  they  commenced  to  clean 
their  implements,  when  suddenly  stopped  by  the  master,  who,  with  a 
fiendish  smile  on  his  face,  declared  that  he  had  concluded  to  make  an 
example  of  the  offenders.     He  bade  the  apprentice  to  work  at  the 


"WITCHCRAFT.  381 

bellows,  and  then,  one  after  the  other,  he  held  the  smeared  hammer- 
handles  over  the  forge  fire,  turning  and  twisting  them  the  while,  and 
uttering  some  unintelligible  incantations  in  a  low  and  solemn  voice, 
the  workmen  standing  round  him  with  awe  and  terror  on  their  sooty 
countenances.  When  the  ceremony  was  over,  the  master  declared  that 
it  was  rather  hard  on  the  culprits,  whose  rectums  must  be  in  a  fright- 
ful condition,  but  that,  unless  an  example  were  made,  such  dirty  tricks 
might  be  repeated,  and  this  would  serve  as  a  warning  to  the  boys  in 
general.  We  boys  had  been  tremblingly  watching  the  whole  pro- 
ceedings, expecting  that  some  fearful  catastrophe  would  befall  us,  and 
I  need  not  state  that  we  were  somewhat  disappointed  when  we  found 
ourselves  unscathed,  although  it  upset  our  belief  in  humbugs  of  this 
kind."  —  (Personal  letter  from  Mr.  Charles  Smith,  Washington, 
D.  C.) 

**  Amongst  some  of  the  Brazilian  Indians,  when  a  girl  attains  pu- 
berty, ...  if  she  have  a  call  of  nature,  a  female  relative  takes  the 
girl  on  her  back  and  carries  her  out,  taking  with  her  a  live  coal,  to 
prevent  evil  influences  from  entering  the  girl's  body."  —  ("  The  Golden 
Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  ii.  p.  231.) 

"To  unbewitch  the  bewitched,  yon  must  spit  into  the  pisse-pot 
where  you  have  made  water."  —  (Reg.  Scot,  "  Disc,  of  Witchcraft," 
p.  62.) 

"The  Shamans  of  the  Thlinkeets  of  Alaska  keep  their  iirine  until 
its  smell  is  so  strong  that  the  spirits  cannot  endure  it." — (Franz 
Boas,  in  "Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore,"  vol.  i.  p.  218.) 

In  the  third  volume  of  the  "  History  of  the  Inquisition,"  by  Henry 
C.  Lea,  New  York,  1888,  there  is  a  chapter  on  "Sorcery  and  Occult 
Arts,"  but  there  is  no  allusion  to  the  use  of  excrement  in  any  form. 
Neither  is  there  anything  to  be  found  in  Dalyell's  "  Superstitions  of 
Scotland,"  Edinburgh,  1834. 

The  sacred  drink,  "hum,"  of  the  Parsis,  has  "the  urine  of  a  young, 
pure  cow  "  as  one  of  the  ingredients.  (See  Max  Miillcr's  "  Biographies 
of  Words,"  London,  1888,  p.  237.)  This  sacred  drink  is  also  used  "as 
an  offering  during  incantations."  —  (Idem.) 

Schurig  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  815)  states  that  horse-dung  was  sometimes 
used  in  "sympathetic  magic:"  "  Interdum  etiam  ad  Sympathiam 
magicam  adhibetur ; "  and  he  recites  an  instance  wherein  a  certain 
farmer,  whose  meadows  were  overrun  by  the  horses  of  his  neighbors, 
was  enabled  by  taking  a  portion  of  the  dung  they  had  dropped  and 
hanging  it  up  in  his  chimney,  to  drive  them  all  into  a  consumption. 


382  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

The  following  seems  to  have  been  in  the  nature  of  an  incantation 
closely  allied  to  the  above.  Two  Yakut  chiefs  contended  for  suprem- 
acy ;  one,  named  Onagai,  defeated  and  banished  his  rival,  who  escaped 
with  only  his  wife  and  two  mares.  This  second  chief,  Aley,  collected 
carefully  the  dung  of  his  mares,  and  when  the  wind  blew  towards  Ona- 
gai's  dwelling,  made  fires  of  the  dung,  the  smell  of  which  allured  the 
strayed  cattle  to  his  dwelling."  —  (Saner,  "  Exped.  to  the  N.  parts  of 
liussia,"  Loudon,  1802,  p.  133.  This  "Aley,"  according  to  Tartar 
tradition,  was  skilled  in  magic  art.     See  idem,  p.  135.) 

"  He  who  wishes  to  revenge  himself  by  witchcraft  endeavors  t-o 
procure  either  the  saliva,  urine,  or  excrements  of  his  enemy,  and  after 
mixing  them  with  a  powder,  and  putting  them  into  a  bag  woven  in  a 
particular  form,  he  buries  them."  —  (Krusenstern's  "  Voy.  round  the 
World,"  Eug.  trans.,  London,  1813,  vol.  i.  p.  174,  speaking  of  the  island 
of  Nukahiva.) 

LangsdorfF  says  that  in  the  Washington  islands,  when  a  man  desires 
to  bewitch  an  enemy,  he  endeavors  to  procure  "some  of  his  hair,  the 
remains  of  something  he  has  been  eating,  and  some  earth  on  which  he 
has  spit  or  made  water." — ("Voyages,"  London,  1813,  p.  156.) 

The  liev.  W.  Ellis,  speaking  of  the  Tahitians,  says :  "  The  parings 
of  nails,  a  lock  of  the  hair,  the  saliva  from  the  mouth,  or  other  secre- 
tions from  the  body,  or  else  a  portion  of  the  food  which  the  person  was 
to  eat,  this  was  considered  as  the  vehicle  by  which  the  demon  en- 
tered the  person  who  afterwards  became  possessed.  .  .  .  The  sorcerer 
took  the  hair,  saliva,  or  other  substance,  which  had  belonged  to  his 
victim,  to  his  house,  or  marae,  performed  his  incantations  over  it,  and 
offered  his  prayers ;  the  demon  was  then  supposed  to  enter  the  sub- 
stance (called  tubu),  and  through  it  to  the  individual  who  had  suffered 
from  the  enchantment."  —  ("  Polynesian  Researches,"  vol.  ii.  p.  228, 
quoted  in  "  The  Nat.  Trib.  of  S.  Australia,"  p.  25.) 

"  If  the  death  of  any  obnoxious  person  is  desired  to  be  procured  by 
sorcery,  the  malevolent  native  secures  a  portion  of  his  enemy's  hair, 
refuse  of  food,  or  excrement ;  these  substances  are  carried  in  a  bag 
specially  reserved  for  the  artillery  of  witchcraft,  a  little  wallet  which 
is  slung  over  the  shoulders.  The  refuse  of  food  is  subjected  to  special 
treatment,  part  of  which  is  scorching  and  melting  before  a  fire ;  but, 
in  the  case  of  excrement,  my  information  is  to  the  effect  that  it  is  just 
allowed  to  moulder  away,  and  as  it  decays  the  health  and  strength  of 
the  enemy  is  supposed  to  decline  contemporaneously.  Excrement  is 
thus  employed  in  the  south  of  Queensland."  —  (Personal  letter  from 


WITCHCRAFT.  383 

John  Matthew,  Esq.,  M.  A.,  dated  "  The  Manse,"  Coburg,  Victoria, 
Nov.  29,  1889.  This  correspondent  has  had  a  great  deal  of  experience 
with  the  savages  of  Australia.) 

The  Patagouians  have  the  belief  that  their  witches  can  do  harm  to 
those  from  whom  they  obtain  any  exuvise  or  excrement,  —  "  if  they  can 
possess  themselves  of  some  part  of  their  intended  victim's  body,  or 
that  which  has  proceeded  from  it,  such  as  hair,  pieces  of  nails,  etc.  ; 
and  this  superstition  is  the  more  curious  from  its  exact  accordance 
with  that  so  prevalent  in  Polynesia." — ('*  Voyage  of  the  Adventure 
and  Beagle,"  quoting  the  Jesuit  Falkner,  vol.  ii.  p.  163.) 

There  was  some  ill-defined  relation  between  the  power  of  urination 
and  virginity.  Burton  speaks  of  "such  strange,  absurd  trials  in  Al- 
bertus  Magnus.  ...  by  stones,  perfumes,  to  make  them  piss  and 
confess  I  know  not  what  in  their  sleep."  —  ("  Anat.  of  Melancholy," 
vol.  ii.  p.  451.) 

Speaking  of  the  Australians,  Smith  says  :  "  The  only  remarkable 
custom  (diifering  from  other  savages)  in  their  fighting  expeditions,  is 
the  adoption  of  the  custom  commanded  to  the  Israelites  on  going  out 
to  war.  (Deut.  c.  23,  ver.  12-14,  —  about  hiding  excrement.)  The 
natives  believe  that  if  the  enemy  discovered  it,  they  would  burn  it  in 
the  fire,  and  thus  ensure  their  collective  destruction,  or  that,  individ- 
ually, they  would  pine  away  and  die."  —  ("  Aborigines  of  Victoria," 
vol.  i.  p.  165.) 

"  In  the  middle  of  the  hall  .  .  .  was  a  vase,  of  which  the  contents 
were  at  least  as  varied  as  those  of  the  caldron  of  Macbeth ;  a  mixture, 
in  part,  composed  of  nameless  ingredients."  —  ("  Dictionnaire  Univer- 
sel  du  XlXrae  Siecle,"  by  P.  Larousse,  quoted  in  "  Reports  of  Voudoo 
Worship  in  Hayti  and  Louisiana,"  by  W.  W.  Xewell,  in  "Jour,  of 
Amer.  Folk-Lore,"  Jan.-March,  1889,  p.  43.) 

There  is  on  record  the  confession  of  a  young  French  witch,  Jeanne 
Bosdean,  at  Bordeaux,  1594,  wherein  is  described  a  witches'  mass,  at 
which  the  devil  appeared  in  the  disguise  of  a  black  buck,  with  a  can- 
dle between  his  horns.  When  holy  water  was  needed,  the  buck  uri- 
nated in  a  hole  in  the  ground  and  the  ofiiciatiug  witch  aspersed  it  upon 
the  congregation  with  a  black  sprinkler.  Jeanne  Bosdean  adhered  to 
her  story  even  when  in  the  flames.^ 

One  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  initiation  of  the  neophytes  into  witch- 

1  Pour  faire  de  I'eau  fenite  le  Bouc  pissoit  dans  un  trou  k  terre  et  celai  qui  faisoit 
I'office  en  arrosoit  les  assistants  avec  un  asperge  noir.  —  (Thiers,  Superstitions,  etc., 
voL  ii.  book  4,  cap.  1,  p.  367.     See  the  same  story  in  Picart,  voL  viiL  p  69.) 


384  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

craft  was  "kissing  the  devil's  bare  buttocks."  (Reg.  Scot.  "Discov- 
erie,"  pp.  3G,  37.)  Pope  Gregory  IX.,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  several 
German  bishops  iu  1234,  describes  the  initiation  of  sorcerers  as  follows  : 
The  novices,  on  being  introduced  into  the  assembly,  "  see  a  toad  of 
enormous  size.  .  .  .  Some  kiss  its  mouth,  others  its  rear."  Next, 
"  a  black  cat  is  presented  .  .  .  The  novice  kisses  the  rear  anatomy  of 
the  cat,  after  which  he  salutes  in  a  similar  manner  those  who  preside 
at  the  feast,  and  others  worthy  of  the  honor."  ("  Med.  in  Middle 
Ages,"  Minor,  p.  41.)  Again,  "At  witches'  reunions,  the  possessed 
kissed  the  devil's  rear,  kissing  it  goat  fashion,  in  a  butting  attitude." 
(Idem,  p.  50.)  "  Le  baiser  d'hommage  est  doune  au  derriere  du 
Diable  parce  qu'il  n'a  ete  permis  k  Moise,  selon  I'Exode,  de  voir  que  la 
derriere  de  Dieu."  —  (Melusine,  Paris,  July-August,  1890,  p.  90,  art. 
"La  Fascination,"  by  J.  Tuchmann.) 

The  devil  hates  nothing  more  than  human  ordure.  (On  this  point, 
see  Luther's  Table  Talk.)  The  devil  cannot  be  more  completely  frus- 
trated than  by  placing  upon  some  of  his  works  human  ordure,  or  hang- 
ing it  in  the  smoke  of  the  chimney.  The  Laplanders  were  reputed  to 
be  able  to  detain  a  ship  in  full  sail ;  yet  when  such  a  vessel  had  been 
besmeared  along  its  seams  in  the  interior  with  the  ordure  of  virgins, 
then  the  efforts  of  the  witches  were  of  no  avail.  (Paullini,  p.  260.) 
"  A  certain  man  bewitched  a  boy,  nine  years  old,  by  placing  the  boy's 
ordure  in  a  hog's  bladder  and  hanging  the  '  sausage  '  in  the  chimney. 
(Idem,  p.  261.)  But  some  believed  that  by  this  smoking  of  ordure 
the  evil  often  became  worse ;  that  the  diseased  person  gradually  dried 
\ip  \mtil  at  last  he  died,  as  he  experienced  in  the  case  of  his  own 
father-in-law.  .  .  .  Farmers'  wives,  to  make  the  butter  come  in  spite 
of  the  witches,  poured  fresh  cow's  milk  upon  human  ordure,  or  down 
into  the  privy,  and  the  witches  were  thereupon  rendered  powerless."  — 
(Idem,  p.  263.     See  also  citation  from  Schurig,  "  Chylologia.") 

The  Magi  also  taught  to  drink  the  ashes  of  a  pig's  pizzle  in  sweet 
wine,  and  so  to  make  water  into  a  dog's  kennel,  adding  the  words, 
"  Lest  he,  like  a  hound,  should  make  urine  in  his  own  bed,"  If  a  man, 
in  the  morning,  made  water  a  little  on  his  own  foot,  it  would  be  a  pre- 
servative against  mala  medicamenta,  doses  meant  to  do  him  harm."  — 
("Saxon  Lcechdoms,"  lib.  i.  p.  12,  quoting  Pliny.  See  citations  al- 
ready made  from  that  author.) 

Beckherius  "(Med.  Microcosmus,  p.  114)  tells  the  story  of  the  Lap- 
land witches  being  able  to  hold  a  ship  in  its  course,  except  when  the 


WITCHCRAFT.  385 

inner  seams  of  tho  vessel  had  been  calked  with  the  ordure  of  a  virgin  ; 
see  extract  already  entered. 

Again,  Beckherius  quotes  Josephus  as  narrating  that  a  certain  lake, 
near  Jericho,  ejected  asphalt  which  adhered  so  tenaciously  to  a  ship 
that  it  was  in  danger  of  wreck,  had  not  the  asphalt  been  loosened  by 
an  application  of  menstrual  blood  and  human  urine.  —  (Idum,  p.  io, 
quoting  Josephus,  "  De  Bello  Judaico,"  lib.  iv.  c.  47.) 

Beckherius,  "  Med.  Microcosmus,"  p.  43,  cites  Josephus  in  regard  to 
a  certain  plant  to  which  magical  properties  were  ascribed,  but  only  to 
be  brought  out  by  watering  it  with  menstrual  blood  and  the  urine  of  a 
woman.  —  (Josephus,  "De  Bell.  Jud."  lib.  vii.  c.  23,  p.  14G.) 

Dittmar  Bleekens,  speaking  of  the  "  Islanders  "  (Icelanders),  says  : 
"  And  truly,  it  is  a  wonder  that  Satan  so  sporteth  witli  them,  for  hee 
hath  shewed  thera  a  remedie  in  staying  of  their  ships,  to  wit,  the  ex- 
crements of  a  maide  being  a  Virgin ;  if  they  anoynt  the  Prow  and  cer- 
taine  plancks  of  the  ship  hee  hath  taught  them  that  the  spirit  is  put 
to  flight  and  driven  away  with  this  stinke."  —  (In  Purchas,  vol.  i.  p. 
646.) 

Josephus  says  (his  remarks  have  already  been  given  in  quotation, 
but  are  repeated  to  show  exactly  what  he  did  say) :  The  bitumen  of 
Lake  Asphaltites  "is  so  tenacious  as  to  make  the  ship  hang  upon  the 
clods  till  they  set  it  loose  with  blood  and  with  urine,  to  which  alone  it 
yields."  —  ("  Wars  of  the  Jews,"  Eng.  trans.,  New  York,  1821,  book  4, 
c.  7.) 

The  people  of  the  Island  of  Mota,  or  Banks  Island,  "have  a  kind  of 
individual  totem,  called  tamaniu.  It  is  some  object,  generally  an 
animal,  as  a  lizard  or  snake,  but  sometimes  a  stone,  with  which  the 
person  imagines  that  his  life  is  bound  up ;  if  it  dies  or  is  broken  or 
lost,  he  will  die.  Fancy  dictates  the  choice  of  a  tamaniu ;  or  it  may 
be  found  by  drinking  an  infusion  of  "  certain  kinds  of  herbs  and  heap- 
ing together  the  dregs.  "Whatever  living  thing  is  first  seen  in  or  upon 
the  heap  is  the  tamaniu.  It  is  watched,  but  not  fed  or  worshipped." 
—  (Frazer,  "Totemism,"  Edinburgh,  1887,  p.  56.) 

Compare  the  preceding  paragraph  with  the  practice,  elsewhere  noted, 
of  determining  whether  or  not  a  woman  is  pregnant  by  pouring  some 
of  her  urine  upon  bran  and  allowing  it  to  ferment  and  tlien  watching 
the  appearance  of  animal  life.  Also,  the  method  of  determining  whether 
or  not  a  man  was  stricken  with  leprosy. 

To  determine  whether  a  woman  be  pregnant  of  a  boy  or  a  girl, 
make  two  small  holes  in  the  ground  ;  in  one,  put  wheat ;  in  the  other, 

25 


386  SCATALOGIC    RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

barley ;  let  her  urinate  on  both  ;  if  tlie  wheat  sprout  first,  she  will 
have  a  boy ;  if  the  barley,  a  girL  To  determine  whether  a  man  had 
been  attacked  by  leprosy  (elephantiasis),  the  ashes  of  burnt  lead 
(plumbi  usti  ciueres)  were  thrown  into  his  urine ;  if  they  fell  to  the 
bottom,  he  was  well ;  if  they  floated  on  top,  he  was  iu  dan<i-er. 

To  tell  whetlier  a  man  had  been  bewitched,  "  Coque  in  olla  nova,  ad 
ignem,  urinam  hominis  quae  si  ebullierit,  liber  erit  a  veueficio."  —  (Beck- 
herius,  "Med.  Microcosmus,"  pp.  61,  62.) 

To  determine  whether  a  sick  man  was  to  die  during  the  current 
mouth,  some  of  his  urine  was  shaken  ui)  in  a  glass  vessel  until  it 
foamed ;  then  the  observer  took  some  of  his  own  earwax  (cerumen) 
and  placed  it  in  this  foam ;  if  it  separated,  the  man  was  to  recover  j  if 
not,  not.  —  (Idem,  p.  62.) 

*'  It  is  said  that  King  Louis  Philippe  before  mounting  on  horseback 
never  failed  to  urinate  against  the  left  hind  leg  of  his  horse,  according 
to  an  old  tradition  in  cavalry  that  such  a  proceeding  had  the  effect  of 
strengthening  the  leg  of  the  beast  and  rendering  the  animal  more  apt 
to  sustain  the  effort  made  by  the  rider  when  jumping  upon  the 
saddle.  I  tell  you  the  fact  as  I  heard  it  reported  by  one  of  the  king's 
sons,  Prince  of  Joinville,  forty-five  years  ago  when  I  was  sailing  in  a 
frigate  —  *  La  Belle  Poule  '  —  under  his  command."  —  (Personal  letter 
from  Captain  Henri  Jouan,  French  Navy.) 

The  people  of  Lake  Ubidjwi,  near  Lake  Tanganyika,  are  thus  de- 
scribed :  "  Both  sexes  of  all  classes  carry  little  carved  images  round 
their  necks  or  tied  to  the  upper  part  of  their  arms  as  a  charm  against 
evil  spirits.  They  are  usually  hollow,  and  filled  with  filth  by  the 
medicine-men." — ("Across  Africa,"  Cameron,  London,  1877,  vol.  i. 
p.  336.) 

In  the  incantations  made  by  the  medicine-men  to  avert  disaster  from 
fire  and  preserve  his  expedition,  Cameron  notes,  among  other  features, 
"a  ball  made  of  shreds  of  bark,  mud,  and  filth."  (Idem,  vol.  ii. 
p.  118.)  The  term  "filth,"  as  here  employed,  can  have  but  one 
meaning. 

"  Poor  Eobin,  in  his  Almanac  for  1695  .  .  .  ridicules  the  following 
indelicate  fooleries  tlien  in  use,  which  must  surely  have  been  either  of 
Dutch  or  Flemish  extraction.  They  who  when  they  make  water  go 
streaking  the  walls  with  their  urine,  as  if  they  were  planning  some 
antic  figures  or  making  some  curious  delineations,  or  shall  piss  in  the 
dust,  making  I  know  not  what  scattering  angles  and  circles,  or  some 
chink  in  a  wall,  or  a  little  hole  in  the  ground,  to  be  brought  in,  after 


WITCHCRAFT.  337 

two  or  three  admonitions,  as  incurable  fools."  (Brand,  "Popular 
Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  175,  article  "Nose  and  Mouth  Omens.")  This 
was  possibly  a  survival  from  some  old  method  of  divining. 

Cameron,  describing  the  dance  of  a  medicine-man  in  the  village  of 
Kwinhata,  near  the  head  of  the  Congo,  and  the  humble  deference 
shown  to  these  Mganga  by  the  women,  says  of  one  of  the  women  : 
"  She  soon  went  away  quite  happy,  the  chief  Mganga  having  honored  her 
by  spitting  in  her  face  and  giving  her  a  ball  of  beastliness  as  a  charm. 
This  she  hastened  to  place  in  safety  in  her  hut."  —  ("  Across  Africa," 
vol.  ii.  p.  82.) 

An  article  in  "  Table  Talk,"  copied  in  the  "  Evening  Star,"  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  of  Dec.  17,  1888,  entitled  "Christmas  under  the  Polar 
Star/'  says  that  "  in  Southern  Lapland,  should  the  householder  neglect 
to  provide  an  ample  store  of  fuel  for  the  season's  needs,  in  popular  be- 
lief, the  disgusted  Yule-swains  or  Christmas  goblins  would  so  befoul 
the  wood-pile  that  there  would  be  no  getting  at  its  contents." 

Frommann  devotes  a  long  article  to  a  refutation  of  the  popular  idea 
of  his  day  that  from  the  urine  or  seed  of  a  man  innocently  hanged  for 
theft,  could  be  generated  "  homunculi."  "  Anile  istud  placitum,  ex 
urina  vel  semine  hominis  innocenter  ad  suspendiura  furti  crimine 
damnati  homunculum  generari."  —  ("  Tract,  de  Fascinat.,"  p.  672.) 

"Butler's  description  in  his  '  Hudibras' of 'a  cunning  man  or  for- 
tune-teller,' is  fraught  with  a  great  deal  of  his  usual  pleasantry,  — 

"  '  To  him,  with  questions  and  with  urine, 
They  for  discovery  flock,  or  curing.' " 

—  (Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  62,  article  '*  Sorcerer.") 

"  There  were  Etruscan  wizards  who  made  rain  or  discovered  springs 
of  water,  it  is  not  certain  which.  They  were  thought  to  bring  the 
rain  or  water  out  of  their  bellies." — ("The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer, 
vol.  i.  p.  22.) 

The  bed-chamber  of  Munza,  King  of  the  Mombottoes,  was  "  painted 
with  many  geometrical  designs  .  .  .  the  white  from  dog's  dung  (album 
Grsecum)." —  ("  Heart  of  Africa,"  Schweinfurth,  London,  1878,  vol.  ii. 
p.  36.) 

It  is  quite  safe  to  assert  that  these  "geometrical  designs"  were 
"magical. " 

"  Witches  are  supposed  to  acquire  influence  over  any  one  by  be- 
coming possessed  of  anything  belonging  to  the  intended  victim,  — 
such  as  a  hair,  a  piece  of  wearing  apparel,  or  a  pin.     The  influence 


388  EC.VTALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

acquired  hj  the  witch  is  greater  if  such  an  article  be  voluntarily  or 
unconsciously  handed  to  her  by  the  person  asked  for  it.  ...  A 
witch  can  be  disabled  by  securing  a  hair  of  her  head,  wrapping  it  in  a 
piece  of  paper,  and  placing  it  against  a  tree  as  a  target  into  which  a 
silver  bullet  is  to  be  fired  from  a  gun.  .  .  .  When  the  patient  reaches 
the  age  of  adolescence,  the  alleged  relief  (from  incontinence  of  urine) 
is  obtained  by  urinating  into  a  newly-made  grave  ;  the  corpse  must  be 
of  the  opposite  sex  to  that  of  the  experimenter."  —  ("  Folk-Lore  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Germans,"  Hoffman,  in  "Journal  of  American  Folk- 
Lore,"  January-March,  1889,  pp.  28-32.) 

Black  alludes  to  the  same  ideas.     See  his  "  Folk-Medicine,"  p.  16. 

To  frustrate  the  effects  of  witchcraft.  Dr.  Eosinus  Lentilius  recom- 
mended that  the  patient  take  a  quantity  of  his  own  ordure,  the  size 
of  a  filbert,  and  drink  it  in  oil.  (See  "Ephem.  Medic,"  Leipsig,  1G94, 
p.  170.)  According  to  Paullini,  the  antidotes  were  to  take  human 
ordure  both  internally  and  externally,  and  human  urine  externally. 
Schurig,  for  the  same  purpose,  recommended  the  human  urine  and 
ordure,  but  both  to  be  taken  internally,  mixed  with  hyoscyamus. 
—  ("  Chylologia,"  pp.  765,  766.) 

In  Fi'ance  witches  were  transformed  into  animals,  and  vice  versa, 
"by  washing  their  hands  in  a  certain  water  which  they  kept  in  a  pot." 
Eeference  is  also  made  to  "  a  basin  of  anything  but  holy  water  with 
which  the  initiated  were  sprinkled."  —  (•'  Sorcery  and  Magic,"  Thomas 
Wright,  London,  1851,  vol.  i.  pp.  310,  311,  328,  329.) 

Eeginald  Scot  tells  the  story  of  "  a  mass-priest  "  who  was  tormented 
by  an  incubus  ;  after  all  other  remedies  had  foiled,  he  was  advised  by 
"  a  cunning  witch  .  .  .  that  the  next  morning,  about  the  dawning  of 
the  day,  I  should  pisse,  and  immediately  should  cover  the  pisse-pot,  or 
stop  it  with  my  right  nether-stock."  —  ("  Discoverie,"  p.  65.) 

The  Thlinkeet  of  the  northwest  coast  of  America  believe  that  a 
drowned  man  can  be  restored  to  life  by  cutting  his  skin  and  apphing 
a  medicine  made  of  certain  roots  infused  in  the  urine  of  a  child, 
which  has  been  kept  for  three  moons.  Drowned  men,  according  to 
their  medicine-men,  are  turned  into  otters.  —  (See  Franz  Boas,  in 
"Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore,"  vol.  i.  p.  218.) 

"  It  was  a  supposed  remedy  against  witchcraft  to  put  some  of  the 
bewitched  person's  water,  with  a  quantity  of  pins,  needles,  and  nails, 
into  a  bottle,  cork  them  up,  and  set  them  before  the  fire,  in  order  tb 
confine  the  spirit ;  but  this  sometimes  did  not  prove  sufficient,  as  it 
would  often  force  the  cork  out  with  a  loud  noise,  like  that  of  a  pistol, 


WITCHCRAFT.  389 

and  cast  the  contents  to  a  considerable  height."  —  (Brand,  "  Popular 
Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  13,  article  "Sorcerers.") 

Where  the  limbs  of  a  man  had  been  bewitched,  he  should  bathe 
them  with  his  own  urine  ;  somerecommended  an  addition  of  garlic  or 
assafoetida.  —  (Frommann,  "Tract,  de  Fascinat.,"  pp.  961,  962.) 

"  Jordeu,  in  his  curious  treatise,  *  Of  the  Suffocation  of  the  Mother,' 
1603,  p.  24,  says:  'Another  policie  Marcellus  Donatus  tells  us  of, 
which  a  physitian  used  toward  the  Countesse  of  Mantua,  who,  being  in 
that  disease  which  we  call  melancholia  hypochondriaca,  did  verily  be- 
lieve that  she  was  bewitched,  and  was  cured  by  conveying  of  nayles, 
needles,  feathers,  and  such  like  things,  into  her  close-stool  when  she  took 
physicke,  making  her  believe  that  they  came  out  of  her  bodie,' "  — 
(Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  13,  article  "Sorcerers.") 

Schurig  prescribed  hen  and  dove  dung  for  the  cure  of  the  bewitched. 
—  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  817.) 

Beckherius  highly  extolled  human  ordure  for  the  same  purpose.  — 
("Med.  Microcosmus,"  p.  113.") 

"  The  catamenial  blood  of  women  was  looked  upon  as  efficacious  in 
chasing  away  demons."  —  (Black,  "Folk-Medicine,"  p.  154,  quoting 
Sinistrari.) 

In  Scotland,  "  they  put  a  small  quantity  of  salt  into  tlie  first  milk 
of  a  cow,  after  calving,  that  is  given  to  any  person  to  drink.  This  is 
done  with  a  view  to  px-event  skaith  (harm),  if  it  should  happen  that 
the  person  is  not  canny." — (Brand,  "Pop.  Ant.,"  vol.  iii.  p.  165,  art. 
"  Salt-Falling."  Compare  the  foregoing  with  what  Sir  Samuel  Baker 
tells  us  about  African  superstitions  on  the  same  subject.) 

"On  line  160,  Eeinerstein's  and  Retz's  edition  of  Lucian's  *  Dea 
Sj'ra,*  4vo,  vol.  iii.  p.  654,  you  will  find  human  dung  mentioned  as 
a  medicine  or  charm,  and  urine  some  lines  lower."  —  (Personal  letter 
from,  Prof.  W.  Robertson  Smith,  dated  Christ  College,  Cambridge, 
England,  August  11,  1888.) 

One  of  the  most  curious  features  about  Grimm's  "  Teutonic  Mythol- 
ogy" (Stallybrass'  translation,  London,  1882),  is  the  absence  of  any 
mention  of  the  use  of  human  or  animal  ordure  or  urine  in  any  man- 
ner, either  medicinally  or  religiously,  or  to  baffle  witchcraft.  He  may 
have  issued  a  supplement,  in  which  all  this  may  have  been  corrected ; 
but  if  he  did  not,  then  his  work  is  most  singularly  defective. 
♦  Mr.  Sylvester  Baxter  states  that  in  a  recent  conversation  with  Mr. 
Frank  H.  Cushing,  near  Tempe,  Arizona,  he  learned  that  in  Mr. 
Cushing's  youth,  people  in  Central  and  Western  New  York  were  still 


390  SCATALOGIC   EITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

using  charms  against  witchcraft,  and  that  Mr.  Gushing  was  personally 
acquainted  with  a  family  which  had  prepared  a  decoction,  one  of 
whose  ingredients  was  human  urine  ;  this  as  a  preventive  of  witchcraft. 
The  locality  referred  to  was  about  eighteen  miles  from  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

"Spitting  into  recently  voided  urine  prevents  one  from  getting 
*  warrle '  ou  his  eyes."  (Mrs.  Fanny  D.  Bergen,  Cambridge,  Alass.) 
This  remedy  goes  back  to  Pliny. 

"To  unbewitch  the  bewitched,  you  must  spit  in  the  pot  where  you 
have  made  water."  —  (Brand,  "Pop.  Ant.,"  vol.  iii.  p.  263,  art. 
"Saliva,"  quoting  from  Pieginald  Scot's  "Discoverie.") 

"  Several  fetid  and  stinking  matters,  such  as  old  urine,  are  excellent 
means  for  keeping  away  all  kinds  of  evil-intentioned  spirits  and 
ghosts."  —  (Rink,  "Tales  and  Traditions  of  the  Eskimo,"  Edinburgh, 
1875,  pp.  50,  452.) 

"  The  Manxmen  still  place  a  vessel  full  of  water  outside  their  doors 
at  night,  to  enable  the  fairies  (who,  they  say,  were  the  first  inhab- 
itants of  their  island,)  to  wash  themselves,  and  prevent  them  from 
doing  harm."  —  (Brand,  "  Pop.  Ant."  vol.  ii.  p.  494,  art.  "  Fairy 
Mytholog)'.") 

It  is  certainly  singular  to  find  here  a  trace  of  the  custom  noted  as 
existing  among  the  Laplanders  and  the  people  of  Siberia,  who  placed 
tubs  of  urine  for  the  same  purpose,  urine  being  used  in  ordinary 
ablutions. 

In  England,  there  was  a  superstition  that  the  woman  who  made 
■water  upon  uettles  would  be  "  peevish  for  a  whole  day."  —  (Brand, 
"Pop.  Ant.,"  vol.  iii.  p.  351),  art.  "  Divination  by  Flowers.") 

Fosbroke  ("  Encyclopaedia  of  Antiquities,"  vol.  ii.)  says  that  this 
proverb  is  ancient.  "  Nettles  were  in  ancient  times  regarded  as  an 
aphrodisiac." 

Schurig  ("  Chylologia,"  p.  795)  repeats  the  story  to  the  effect  that 
the  Laplanders  calked  the  inner  seams  of  their  ships  with  the  ordure 
of  virgins  to  increase  their  speed.  Tlie  Laplanders,  when  any  of  their 
reindeer  die  of  disease,  abandon  their  camp,  being  careful  "to  burn 
all  the  excrement  of  the  animal  before  they  depart." —  (Leem's 
"  Account  of  Danish  Lapland,"  in  Pinkertou,  vol.  i.  p.  484.  See  pre- 
vious citations  from  Sauer  m  regard  to  the  Yakuts  of  Siberia.) 

The  story  was  current  m  California,  about  twenty  years  since,  that 
the  immigrants  to  that  state  from  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  in  the  gold- 
mining  days,  had  the  custom  of  depositing  their  evacuations,  before 
starting  on  the  march  of  the  day,  in  the  camp-fires  of  the  preceding 


WITCHCRAFT.  391 

night.  Nothing  was  learned  of  the  meaning,  if  any,  of  the  custom. 
Nursing  women  sprinkled  a  few  drops  of  their  milk  on  the  burning 
coals  in  the  fireplace,  to  ensure  an  abundant  flow.  —  (EtmuUer, 
vol.  i.  p.  68.) 

The  author  has  been  fortunate  in  obtaining  a  copy  of  the  address  of 
Mr.  James  Moouey,  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washington,  D.  C, 
upon  the  "Medical  Mythology  of  Ireland." 

This  interesting  and  extremely  valuable  contribution,  which  can  be 
found  in  the  "  Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  for 
1887,"  leaves  no  uncertainty  in  regard  to  the  mystic  powers  ascribed 
by  the  Celtic  peasantry  to  both  urine  and  ordure.  Urine  and  chicken- 
dung  are  shown  to  be  potent  in  frustrating  the  mischief  of  fairies ; 
"  fire,  iron,  and  dung "  are  spoken  of  as  the  "  three  great  safeguards 
against  the  influence  of  fairies  and  the  infernal  spirits."  Dung  is 
caiTied  about  the  person,  as  part  of  the  contents  of  amulets ;  and  chil- 
dren suffering  from  convulsions  are,  as  a  last  resort,  bathed  from  head 
to  foot  in  urine,  to  rescue  them  from  the  clutches  of  their  fairy 
persecutors.  See  also  p.  377,  in  regard  to  the  "  dwarves,"  who,  in 
England,  seem  to  be  the  same  as  fairies. 

Du  Chaillu,  in  his  "  Land  of  the  Midnight  Sun,"  makes  no  reference 
to  the  use,  in  any  manner,  by  the  inhabitants  of  that  region,  of  excre- 
raentitious  matorials  for  any  purposes.  His  stay  was  of  such  an  ex- 
tremely short  duration,  that  his  observations  cannot  be  compared  with 
those  made  by  Leems  and  others,  from  whom  information  has  already 
been  extracted. 

A  curious  survival,  in  France,  of  the  Parsi  custom  of  the  "  Nirang  " 
is  demonstrated  in  the  May  number  of  "Melusine,"  Paris,  1888, 
entitled   "  Le  Nirang  des  Parsis,   en  Basse  Bretagne." 

"J'ai  passe  mon  enfance,  jusqu'a  I'age  de  quatorze  ans,  dans  un 
vieux  manoir  breton,  du  nom  de  Keramborgne,  dans  la  commune  de 
Plouarte,  arrondissement  de  Lannion.  Le  manoir  paternel  etait  bien 
connu  des  malheureux  et  des  mendiants  errants  .  .  .  qui  venaient 
demander  le  vivre  et  le  convert  pour  la  nuit  .  .  .  Parrai  les  pauvres 
eiTants  qui  etaient  les  botes  les  plus  assidus  de  Keramborgne  .  .  . 
se  trouvait  une  vieille  femme  nommee  Gillette  Kerlohiou,  qui  con- 
naissait  toutes  les  nouvelles  du  pays  .  .  .  et,  de  plus,  avait  la  reputa- 
tion d'etre  quelque  peu  sorciere,  et  de  guerir  certaines  maladies  par 
des  oraisons  et  des  herbes  dont  elle  seule  avait  le  secret.  .  .  .  Un 
matin  que  Gillette  avait  passe  la  nuit  a  I'etable  .  .  .  elle  marmottait 
des  prieres.  .  .  .  Une  vache  s'etant  mise  a  uriner,  la  vieille  mendiante 


392  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

se  precipita  vers  elle,  recut  de  I'urine  dans  le  creux  de  sa  main  et  s'en 
frotta  la  figure  a  plusieiirs  reprises.  .  .  .  Ce  que  voyaut  le  vacher,  il  la 
traita  de  salope  et  de  vieille  folic.  Mais  Gillette  lui  dit,  sans  s'emou- 
voir  :  *  Rien  n'est  meilleur,  mon  fils,  que  de  se  laver  la  figure,  le  matin, 
en  se  levant,  avec  de  I'urine  de  la  vache,  et  meme  avec  sa  propre  urine 
si  Ton  ne  pent  se  procurer  de  celle  de  vache.  Quand  vous  avez  fait 
cette  ablution,  le  matin,  vous  etes,  pour  toute  la  journee,  a  I'abri  des 
embuches  et  des  mechancetes  du  diable,  car  vous  deveuez  invisible 
pour  lui.'  " 

The  writer  of  the  above,  M.  F.-M.  Luzel,  learned  from  the  other 
peasants  and  beggars  standing  about  that  the  belief  expressed  by  the 
old  woman  was  fully  concurred  in  by  her  comrades. 

*'  Nos  paysannes  de  France  se  lavaient  les  mains  dans  leur  urine  ou 
dans  celle  de  leurs  maris,  ou  de  leurs  enfants,  pour  detourner  les  male- 
fices  ou  en  empecher  TefFet." —  (Rechis,  "Les  Primitifs,"  p.  98.) 

Father  Le  Jeune  must  have  been  on  the  track  of  something  corre- 
sponding to  an  nr-orgy  among  the  Hurons  when  he  learned  that  the 
devil  imposed  upon  the  sick,  in  dreams,  the  duty  of  wallowing  in  or- 
dure if  they  hoped  for  restoration  to  health.^ 

This  penitential  wallowing  was  retained  by  nations  of  a  high  order 
of  advancement,  the  ordure  of  primitive  times  being  generally  super- 
seded by  clay  and  other  less  filthy  matter. 

"  Let  it  suffice  to  display  the  points  where  Greek  found  itself  in  har- 
mony with  Australian  and  American  and  African  practice.  ...  3.  The 
habit  of  daubing  persons  about  to  be  initiated  with  clay,  ...  or  any- 
thing else  that  is  sordid,  and  of  washing  this  off,  apparently  by  way  of 
showing  that  old  guilt  is  removed,  and  a  new  life  entered  upon."  — 
("Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,"  Andrew  Lang,  London,  1887,  vol.  ii. 
p.  282.) 

"  Plutarch,  in  his  essay  on  superstition,  represents  the  guilty  man 
who  would  be  purified  actually  rolling  in  clay."  —  (Idem,  p.  28G.) 

The  following  is  described  as  the  Abyssinian  method  of  exorcising  a 
woman  :  The  exorcist  "  lays  an  amulet  on  the  patient's  heaving  bosom, 
makes  her  smell  of  some  vile  compound,  and  the  moment  her  madness 
is  somewhat  abated  begins  a  dialogue  with  the  Bouda  (demon),  who 
answers  in  a  woman's  voice.  The  devil  is  invited  to  come  out  in  the 
name  of  all  the  saints ;  but  a  threat  to  treat  him  with  some  red-hot 

^  Leur  faisant  voir  en  songe,  qii  lis  ne  s^auroient  guerir  qu'en  se  veautant  dans 
toutes  sortes  dordures.  —  (P^re  Le  Jeune,  "Jesuit  Relations,'  1636,  published  by 
Canadian  Government,  Quebec,  1858.) 


WITCHCRAFT.  393 

coals  is  usually  more  potent,  and  after  he  has  promised  to  obey,  he 
seeks  to  delay  his  exit  by  asking  for  something  to  eat.  Filth  and  dirt 
are  mixed  and  hidden  under  a  bush,  when  the  woman  crawls  to  the 
sickening  repast  and  gulps  it  down  with  avidity."  —  (From  an  article 
entitled  "  Abyssinian  Women,"  in  the  "  Evening  Star,"  Washington, 
D.  C,  October  17,  1885.) 

"  A  Pretty  Charme  or  Conclusion  for  one  Possessed.  .  .  .  The  pos- 
sessed body  must  go  upon  his  or  her  knees  to  church,  .  .  .  and  so 
must  creep  without  going  out  of  the  way,  being  the  common  highway, 
in  that  sort  how  foul  and  dirty  soever  the  same  may  be,  or  whatsoever 
lie  in  the  way,  not  shunning  anything  whatsoever,  untill  he  come  to 
the  church,  where  he  must  heare  masse  devoutly."  —  (Scot,  "  Dis- 
coverie,"  p.  178.) 

By  the  Irish  peasantry  urine  was  sprinkled  upon  sick  children.^ 

American  boys  urinate  upon  their  legs  to  prevent  cramp  while 
swimming. 

In  Stirling,  Scotland,  "  a  certain  quantity  of  cow-dung  is  forced  into 
the  mouth  of  a  calf  immediately  after  it  is  calved,  or  at  least  before  it 
has  received  any  meat ;  owing  to  this,  the  vulgar  believe  that  witches 
and  fairies  can  have  no  power  ever  after  to  injure  the  calf."  —  (Brand, 
"  Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  257,  article  "  Rural  Charms.") 

Fromraanu  gives  a  preparation  of  twenty-five  ingredients  for  freeing 
infants  from  witchcraft  (fascinatio)  ;  but  neither  human  nor  animal 
egestse  are  mentioned.  —  ("  Tract,  de  Fascinat.,"  p.  449,  450.) 

Cox,  in  his  history  of  Ireland,  gives  a  description  of  the  trial  of 
Lady  Alice  Kettle,  of  Ossory,  charged  with  being  a  witch,  and  with 
sacrificing  to  a  familiar  spirit  at  night,  at  cross-roads,  nine  red  cocks 
and  nine  peacock's  eyes,  and  with  ssveeping  the  streets  of  Kilkenny, 
"raking  all  the  filth  towards  the  doors  of  her  son,  William  Outlaw, 
murmuring  and  muttering  secretly  with  herself  these  words  :  — 

"  'To  the  House  of  William,  my  son, 

Hie  all  the  Wealth  of  Kilkenny  town.'  " 

—  ("  History  of  Ireland,"  London,  1639,  vol.  i.  p.  102.  The  date  of 
the  above  was  about  1325.) 

This  story  is  quoted  by  Vallencey,  "  Collect,  de  Rebus  Hibernicis," 

1  Brand  quotes  Camden  as  relating  of  the  Irish  that,  "  if  a  child  is  at  any  time 
out  of  order,  they  sprinkle  it  with  the  stalest  urine  they  can  get."  —  (Brand, 
"  Popular  Antiquities,"  article  "Christening  Customs,'  London,  1849,  vol.  ii. 
p.  86.) 


394  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Dublin,  1774,  vol.  ii.  p.  369,  and  by  Henry  C.  Lea,  "History  of  the 
Inquisition,"  New  York,  1888,  vol.  iii.  p.  457;  it  is  originally  to  be 
found  in  Camden. 

In  the  Island  of  Guernsey,  within  the  present  generation,  "John 
Lane,  of  Anneville,  Lane  Parish,"  has  been  tried  on  the  cliarge  of 
"  having  practised  necromancy,"  and  "  induced  many  persons  in  the 
country  parishes  to  believe  that  they  were  bewitched,"  and  that  he 
could  drive  away  the  devil  and  other  bad  spirits  "  by  boiling  herbs  to 
produce  a  certain  perfume  not  at  all  grateful  to  the  olfactory  nerves  of 
demons,  .  .  .  and  the  sprinkling  of  celestial  water."  —  (Brand,  "  Popu- 
lar Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  66,  article  "  Sorcerers.") 

In  the  valuable  compilation  of  superstitious  practices  interdicted  by 
Roman  Catholic  councils  Thiers  includes  the  persons  who  bathe  their 
hands  with  urine  in  the  morning  to  avert  witchcraft  or  nullify  its 
effect.  He  says,  too,  that  Saint  Lucy  was  reputed  to  be  a  witch,  for 
which  reason  the  Roman  Judge,  Paschasius,  at  her  trial  sprinkled  her 
with  urine.^ 

See  the  extract  just  quoted  from  "  Melusine." 

The  Romans  had  a  feast  to  the  mother  of  all  the  gods,  Bereciuthia, 
in  which  the  matrons  took  their  idol  and  sprinkled  it  with  their  urine. '^ 

Berecinthia  was  one  of  the  names  under  which  Cybele  or  Rhea,  the 
primal  earth  goddess,  was  worshipped  by  the  Romans  and  by  many 
nations  in  the  East.  Her  priests,  the  Galli,  emasculated  themselves 
in  orgies  whose  frenzy  was  of  the  same  general  type  as  the  Omophagi 
of  the  Greeks,  previously  described. 

The  emasculation  of  the  priests  of  Cybele  was  performed  with  a 
piece  of  Samian  pottery.  —  (See  footnote  to  Rev.  Lewis  Evans'  transla- 
tion of  the  Satires  of  Lucilius,  lib.  vii.,  edition  of  New  York,  1860.) 

The  priests  of  Cybele  wei-e  by  some  supposed  to  have  received  the 
name  of  Galli  from  the  River  Gallus,  "  near  which  these  priests  in- 
flicted upon  themselves  the  punishment  we  are  speaking  of  .  .  .  The 

^  Ceux  qui  lavent  leurs  mains  le  matin  avec  de  I'urine  pour  detourner  les  male- 
fices  ou  pour  en  empecher  I'effet.  Cest  pour  cela  que  le  juge  Pascliase  fit  arroser 
(I'urine  Sainte  Luce,  parce  qu'il  s'imaginoit  qu'elle  etoit  sorciere.  —  (Thiers, 
"Traite  dcs  Superstitions,"  Paris,  1741,  vol.  i.  cap.  5,  p.  471.) 

This  statement  is  repeated  verbatim  by  Picart  ("  Coutumes  et  Cerumonies,"  etc., 
Amsterdam,  1729,  p.  35),  and  he  adds  that  the  judge  believed  that  he  would  hj'  this 
jirecaution  disable  her  from  evading  the  torments  in  store  for  her.  John  of  Sauls- 
bury,  bishop  of  Cliartres,  with  good  reason  cast  ridicule  upon  this  charm. 

2  La  rociaba  con  sus  orinas.  —  (Torqueraada,  "Monarchia  Indiana,"  lib.  x. 
cap.  23.) 


I 


WITCHCRAFT,  395 

effect  of  the  water  of  that  river  was  to  throw  them  into  fits  of  enthusi- 
asm, —  '  qui  bibit,  inde  furit,'  as  Ovid  has  it."  —  (Abbe  Banier,  "  My- 
thology," English  translation,  London,  1740,  vol.  ii.  p.  563.) 

"Here  they  set  down  their  litters  at  night  and  bedew  the  very 
image  of  the  goddess  with  copious  irrigations,  while  the  chaste  moon 
witnesses  their  abominations."  —  (Juvenal,  Sixth  Satire,  describing  the 
rites  of  Bona  Dea,  translated  by  Rev.  Lewis  Evans,  M.A.,  Wadhams 
College,  Oxford,  New  York,  18G0.) 

Father  Baudin  speaks  of  the  secret  society  called  the  "  Ogbuni  :  " 
"  From  what  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  this  society  is  simply  an  insti- 
tution similar  to  the  secret  societies  of  the  pagan  people  of  ancient 
times,  where  the  members  were  initiated  into  the  infamous  mysteries 
of  the  great  goddess."  (Negroes  of  Guinea.) — ("Fetichism  and 
Fetich-worshippers,"  Baudin,  New  York,  1885,  p.  64.) 

The  Eskimo  living  near  Point  Ban-ow  have  a  yearly  ceremony  for 
driving  out  an  evil  spirit  which  they  call  Tuna.  Among  the  cei'e- 
monies  incident  to  the  occasion  is  this  :  One  of  the  performers 
"  brought  a  vessel  of  urine  and  flung  it  on  the  fire."  —  ("  The  Golden 
Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  ii.  p.  164,  quoting  "Report  of  the  International 
Polar  Expedition  to  Point  BaiTow,"  Washington,  1885,  p.  42.) 

It  is  strange  to  encounter  in  races  so  diverse  apparently  as  the 
Greeks  and  the  Hottentots  the  same  rites  of  emasculation  and  urine 
sprinkling. 

The  sect  of  the  "  Skoptsi "  or  the  "  Eunuchs,"  in  Russia,  "  base  their 
peculiar  tenets  on  Christ's  saying,  *  There  are  some  eunuchs  which 
were  born  so  from  their  mother's  womb,  and  there  are  some  eunuchs 
which  were  made  eunuchs  of  men,  and  there  be  eunuchs  which  have 
made  themselves  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake.  He  that 
is  able  to  receive  it  let  him  receive  it'  (Matt.  xix.  12)."  —  (Heard, 
"  Russian  Creed  and  Russian  Dissent,"  p.  265.) 

"  This  heresy,  which  is  the  most  modern  of  all,  probably  owes  its 
origin  to  influences  from  the  East  slowly  filtering  through  the  lower 
ranks  of  the  population."  —  (Idem,  p.  267.) 

Reginald  Scot  tells  the  story  of  a  quack  who  preyed  upon  the  fears 
of  patients  suffering  from  tympanitis,  telling  them  they  had  vipers  in 
their  bellies,  which  vipers  he  would  try  to  smuggle  into  the  patient's 
"  ordure  or  excrement,  after  his  purgations."  —  ("  Discoverie," 
p.  198.) 

Schurig  relates  that  the  countrywomen  in  Germany,  if  after  milking 
their  cows  for  a  long  time  they  wei-e  unable  to  bring  the  proper  quantity 


396  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

of  butter,  suspected  that  they  were  under  the  spell  of  a  witch  ;  to  un- 
do this  spell  it  was  only  necessary  to  mix  some  fi'esh  milk  with  human 
ordure  and  throw  the  mixture  down  the  privy  ;  or  human  ordure  was 
applied  to  the  teats  of  the  cows,  much  as  Sir  Samuel  Baker  has  shown 
the  Africans  will  do  in  our  day.  "  Quippe  quse,  siquando  in  confi- 
ciendo  butyro,  per  tempus  frustra  laborarunt,  suspicioue  veueficii 
cujusdam  seductae  lac  vaccinum  recens  emulsum  stercori  humano 
commixtum  cloacae  simul  infundunt,  atque  sic  illico  a  Veneficio  liberan- 
tur.  ...  Si  ferrum  ignitum  una  stercore  humano  lacte  vaccino  con- 
sperso  inseras,  veneficse  pustulas  inducet.  .  .  .  Contra  magicam  lactis 
vaccarum  ablationem,  ipsarum  ubera  stercore  humano  aliquamdiu 
inungi  solcnt."  And  he  ends  his  paragraph  by  quoting  the  dictum 
of  Johannis  Michaelis,  "Sine  omni  fascinatione  et  superstitione  proprio 
stercore  efficere  possit." —  (Schurig,  "  Chylologia,"  pp.  788,  789,  par. 
G2.) 

Compare  with  the  information  derived  from  Paullini. 

The  above  practice  seems  to  have  been  transplanted  to  Pennsylvania, 
with  its  more  objectionable  features  omitted. 

"The  housewife  sometimes  finds  difficulty  in  butter-making,  the 
spell  being  believed  to  be  the  work  of  a  witch.  .  .  .  The  remedy  was 
to  plunge  a  red-hot  poker  into  the  contents  of  the  churn,  when  the 
spell  was  broken,  and  the  butter  immediately  began  to  form."  — 
("  Folk- Lore  of  the  Penn'a  Germans."  —  (Hoffman,  in  "  Jour,  of  Amer. 
Folk-Lore,"  1889.) 

From  all  this  it  would  appear  plausible  to  assume  that  the  "  ripen- 
ing of  cheese  "  in  human  urine  was  originally  induced  by  a  desire  to 
avert  the  evils  of  witchcraft.  Kefer  also  to  the  notes  from  Sir  Samuel 
Baker. 

In  "  South  Mountain  Magic,"  Mrs.  M.  V.  Dahlgren,  Boston,  Mass. 
1882,  may  be  found  references  to  the  bewitching  of  milk  and  cream, 
and  to  the  remedy  employed  of  putting  in  hot  stones  or  "  a  wedge  of 
hot  iron  "  (pp.  165-167).  In  this  partial  "  survival,"  we  see  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  more  objectionable  features  of  the  practices  of  the  old 
country.  Mrs.  Dahlgren's  book  treats  of  the  superstitions  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Germans  living  close  to  the  Maryland  border. 

"The  urine  casters,  a  set  of  quacks  almost  within  our  own  recollec- 
tion, had  a  peculiar  jargon,  which  it  is  not  nccessaiy  to  attend  to."  — 
("  Medical  Dictionary,"  Bartholomew  Parr,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia,  Penn'a, 
1819,  art.  "Urine.") 

When  cattle  had  been  killed  by  witchcraft,  Reginald  Scot  gave  a  long 


WITCHCRAFT.  397 

formula  for  detecting  the  culprit ;  among  other  things,  the  farmer  was 
directed  to  "  traile  the  bowels  of  the  beast  unto  your  house.  .  .  .  into 
the  kitchen,  and  there  make  a  fire,  and  set  ouer  the  same  a  grediron, 
and  thereupon  lay  the  inwards  or  bowels,  and  as  they  wax  hot,  so  shall 
the  witches'  entrails  be  molested  with  extreme  heat  and  pain."  — 
("Discoverie,"  p.  198.  It  should  be  observed  that  there  are  no  direc- 
tions about  "  cleaning  "  the  bowels  of  the  animal.) 

Among  the  modes  of  detecting  witches  in  England,  were  "  by  shav- 
ing off  every  hair  of  the  witch's  body.  They  were  also  detected  by  put- 
ting hair,  parings  of  the  nails,  and  urine  of  any  person  bewitched  into 
a  stone  bottle,  and  hanging  it  up  in  the  chimney."  —  (Cotta,  in  his 
"  Short  Discovery  of  the  Unobserved  Dangers,"  p.  54)  speaks  of  "  the 
burning  of  the  dung  or  urine  of  such  as  are  bewitched."  In  "A 
Pleasant  Grove  of  Xew  Fancies,"  by  H.  R.  8vo,  Loudon,  1857,  p.  76, 

we  have :  — 

"  A  charm  to  bring  in  the  witch, 
To  house  the  hag  you  must  do  this  : 
Commix  with  meal,  a  little  p — 
Of  him  bewitched  ;  then  forthwith  make 
A  little  wafer  or  a  cake  ; 
And  this  rarely  baked,  will  bring 
The  old  hag  iu  ;  no  surer  thing," 

Among  other  methods  given  for  baffling  witches  and  making  their 
evil  deeds  turn  upon  themselves,  we  find  :  "  taking  some  of  the  thatch 
from  over  the  door;  or  a  tyle,  if  the  house  be  tyled  .  .  .  sprinkle  it 
over  with  the  patient's  water.  .  .  .  Put  salt  into  the  patient's  water 
and  dash  it  upon  the  red  hot  tyle."  Another :  heat  a  horse-shoe  red  hot 
and  "quench  him  in  the  patient's  urine.  .  .  .  Having  the  patient's 
urine,  set  it  over  the  fire.  .  .  .  Put  into  it  three  horse-nails  and  a 
little  salt.  ...  Or,  heat  a  horse-shoe  red  hot "  and  "  quench  him  sev- 
eral times  in  the  urine."  Still  another  :  ''stop  the  urine  of  the  patient 
close  up  in  a  bottle,  and  put  into  it  three  nails,  pins,  or  needles,  with  a 
little  white  salt,  keeping  the  urine  always  warm."  —  (Brand,  "Pop. 
Ant."  vol.  iii.  pp.  1  70  et  seq.  art.  "  Sorcery  and  "Witchcraft.") 

"  To  ascertain  if  one  be  bewitched,  take  his  urine  and  boil  it  in  a 
new,  unused  pot ;  if  it  foam  up,  he  is  not  bewitched ;  if  not,  it  is  uncer- 
tain. Or,  take  clean  ashes,  put  them  in  a  new  pot,  let  the  patient 
urinate  thereon.  Tie  up  the  pot,  and  let  it  stand  in  the  sun ;  then 
break  the  ashes  apart ;  if  the  person  be  bewitched,  hairs  will  be  found 
therein."  — (Pa ullini,  pp.  260,  261.) 


398  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

"  Neither  can  I  belieue  (I  speak  it  with  reuerence  unto  graue  judg- 
ments) that  .  .  .  the  burning  of  the  dung  or  vriue  of  such  as  are  be- 
witched, or  floating  bodies  aboue  the  water,  or  the  Uke,  are  any  trial  of 
a  witch." — ("A  Short  Discouerie  of  the  Unobserued  Dangers  of 
Seuerall  sorts  of  Ignorant  and  Vnconsiderate  Practisers  of  Physicke 
in  England,"  John  Cotta,  London,  1G12,  p.  54.) 

Beckherius  inclined  to  believe  that  human  teeth,  taken  medicinally, 
would  break  down  witchcraft :  "  Contra  raaleficia  et  veneficia  prodesse 
scribit."  —  ("  Med.  Microcosmus,"  p.  265.) 

On  New  Year's  Day  they  (the  Highlanders)  burn  juniper  before 
their  cattle,  and  on  the  first  Monday  in  every  quarter,  sprinkle  them 
with  urine."  —  ("  Pennant's  Tour  in  Scotland,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  iii. 
p.  90.) 

"  Les  rustres  slaves  secouaient  sur  leur  b<^tail  des  herbes  de  la  Saint 
Jean,  bouillies  dans  de  I'urine  pour  le  preserver  des  mauvais  sortes."  — 
("Les  Primitifs,"  Eeclus,  p.  98.) 

We  should  not  forget  that  from  the  earliest  recorded  times  the 
cedar  and  juniper  have  been  devoted  to  sacred  offices.  "  The  god  of 
the  cedar,  to  which  tree  was  ascribed  a  peculiar  power  to  avert  fatal 
influences  and  sorcery."  (This,  among  the  Accadians,  the  earliest  known 
inhabitants  of  Mesopotamia.)  —  See  "  Chaldean  Magic,"  Lenormant,  p. 
178.) 

From  a  very  early  date,  urine  seems  to  have  been  symbolized  or 
superseded  by  holy  water,  salt  and  water,  "celestial  water,"  "fore- 
spoken  water,"  juniper  water,  or  wine  or  water,  according  to  circum- 
stances. "  For  lung  disorders  in  cattle.  .  .  .  take  fennel  and  hassock, 
etc.  .  .  .  make  five  crosses  of  hassuck-gi-ass,  set  them  on  four  sides  of 
the  cattle,  and  one  in  the  middle ;  sing  about  the  cattle  Benedicam, 
etc.  .  .  .  Sprinkle  holy  water  upon  them,  burn  about  them  incense." 
—  ("Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  iii.  p.  57;  the  same  remedy  for  diseased 
sheep,  idem,  p.  57.) 

"  If  a  horse  or  other  beast  be  shot  (elf-shot)  take  seed  of  dock  and 
Scotch  wax,  let  a  mass  priest  sing  twelve  masses  over  them,  and  put 
holy  water  on  the  horse."  —  (Idem,  vol.  iii.  p.  47 ;  again,  vol,  iii.  p. 
157.) 

"  When  a  contagious  disease  enters  among  cattle,  the  fire  is  extin- 
guished in  some  villages  round ;  then  they  force  fire  with  a  wheel,  or 
by  rubbing  a  piece  of  dry  wood  upon  another,  and  therewith  bum 
juniper  in  the  stalls  of  the  cattle  that  the  smoke  may  purify  the  air 
about  them ;  they  likewise  boil  juniper  in  water  which  they  sprinkle 


WITCHCRAFT.  399 

upon  the  cattle."  —  (Brand,  "Pop.  Ant."  vol.  iii.  p.  286,  art.  "Physi- 
cal Charms,"  quoting  Shaw's  "History  of  the  Province  of  Moray  in 
Scotland."     Brand  thinks  that  "this  is,  no  doubt,  a  Druid  custom.") 

Scot,  in  his  "Discoverie  "  (p.  157),  says  :  "  Men  are  preserved  from 
witchcraft  by  sprinkling  of  holy  water,"  etc.  (Idem,  vol.  i.  p.  19,  art. 
"  Sorcery.")  "  For  the  devils  are  observed  to  have  delicate  nostrils, 
abominating  and  flying  some  kind  of  stinks;  witness  the  flight  of  the 
evil  spirit  into  the  remote  parts  of  Egypt,  driven  by  the  smell  of  the 
fish's  liver,  burnt  by  Tobit."  Conjurors  are  reported  as  always  care- 
ful to  "  first  exorcise  the  wine  and  water  which  they  sprinkle  on  their 
circle."  —  (Idem,  vol.  iii.  pp.  55,  57,  art.  "  Sorcery.") 

The  foul  condition  of  the  atmosphere  of  sleeping-apartments  was 
supposed  to  be  rectified  by  the  burning  of  juniper,  sometimes  of  rose- 
mary. "  He  doth  sacrifice  two  pence  in  juniper  to  her  every  morning." 
("  Every  Man  out  of  his  Humor,"  Ben  Jonson)  "  Then  put  fresh  water 
into  both  the  bough-pots,  and  burn  a  little  juniper  in  the  hall  chimney, 
Like  a  beast,  as  I  was,  I  pissed  out  the  fire  last  night."  ("  Mayor 
of  Tumborough,"  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.)  "Burn  a  little  juniper  in 
my  murrin ;  the  maid  made  it  in  her  chamber-pot."  —  ("  Cupid's  Rev." 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  iv.  3 ;  contributed  by  Dr.  Fletcher.) 

The  diuretic  eff'ects  of  juniper  berries  are  well  known ;  we  may  con- 
jecture that  the  "  water  of  juniper"  superseded  another  fluid  induced 
by  the  use  of  the  berries. 

The  "  fore-spoken  water  "  with  which  sick  cattle  are  sprinkled  in  the 
Orkneys,  is  still  to  be  noted  in  places  in  the  Highlands.  —  (See  Brand, 
"Pop.  Ant."  vol.  iii.  p.  274,  art.  "Physical  Charms.") 

The  following  spell  is  from  Herrick's  "  Hesperides,"  p.  304 :  — 

"  Holy  water  come  and  bring  ; 
Cast  in  salt  for  seasoning  ; 
Set  the  brush  for  sprinkling." 

(Idem,  vol.  iii.  p.  58,  art.  "  Sorcerer.") 

"The  charmer  muttered  some  words  over  water,  in  imitation  of 
Catholic  priests  consecrating  holy  water."  —  ("  Phil,  of  Magic,"  Sal- 
verte,  p.  52.     Shetland  Islands.) 

According  to  Dalyell,  this  "fore-spoken  water"  was  made  of  water, 
salt,  and  the  saliva  of  the  conjurer.  —  (See  "Superstitions  of  Scot- 
land," p.  98.) 

♦'  For  information  of  a  cherished  relative  and  his  fate,  in  the  other 


400  SCATALOGIC   RITES    OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

world,  they  apply  to  the  fetich-priest,  who  takes  a  little  child  and 
bathes  his  face  with  liistral-water. "  —  ("  Fetichism,"  Baudiiij  p.  65.) 

The  "lustral  water"  of  the  foregoing  paragraph,  is  made  of  "snails 
and  vegetable  butter." —  (Idem,  p.  88.) 

Reginald  Scot  gives  a  "cure"  for  one  "possessed,"  one  point  of 
which  is  that  the  victim  "  must  mingle  holy  water  with  his  meate  and 
his  drink,  and  holy  salt  also  must  be  a  portion  of  the  mixture." 
("Discoverie,"  p.  178.)  Witches  were  required  to  drink  holy  water  at 
their  trials.  —  (Idem,  p.  21.) 

Salt  was  called  "divine"  by  the  ancients.  —  (See  "Morals,"  Plu- 
tarch, Goodwin's  English  edit.,  Boston,  1870,  vol.  iii.  p.  338.) 

"  Both  Greeks  and  Romans  mixed  salt  with  their  sacrificial  cakes ; 
in  their  lustrations,  also,  they  made  use  of  salt  and  water,  which  gave 
rise,  in  after  times,  to  the  superstition  of  holy  water."  —  (Brand 
"Pop.  Ant."  vol.  iii.  p.  161,  art.  "Salt  Falling.") 

The  Scottish  use  of  salt  and  water,  as  already  noted,  is  described  by 
Black  ("Folk  Medicine,"  p.  23);  and  by  Isapier  ("  Folk-Lore,"  pp. 
36,  37.) 

Salt  is  put  in  the  cradle  of  a  new-born  babe  in  Holland.  —  ("Times," 
New  York,  Nov.  10,  1889.)  "No  one  will  go  out  on  any  material 
affairs  without  putting  some  salt  in  their  pockets ;  much  less  remove 
from  one  house  to  another,  marry,  put  out  a  child,  or  take  one  to 
nurse,  without  salt  being  interchanged."  (Dalyell,  "  Superst.  of 
Scotland,"  p.  9G.)  Salt  is  not  used  by  the  Eastern  Inuit :  "  Le  sel 
leur  repngne,  peut-etre  parceque  I'atmosphere  et  les  poissons  crus  eu 
sont  deja  satur^s."  —  ("Les  Primitifs,"  Reclus,  p.  33.) 

Having  shown  that  witches  were  exorcised  in  France,  England,  Scot- 
land, etc.,  by  sprinkling  with  urine,  we  have  reason  to  claim  the  follow- 
ing treatment  to  be  at  least  cousin-german  to  our  subject.  In  the 
west  of  Scotland,  a  peasant  suffering  from  a  mysterious  and  obstinate 
disease,  was  reputed  to  be  under  the  influence  of  the  ."  evil  eye." 
The  following  remedy  was  then  resorted  to :  "  An  old  sixpence  is  bor- 
rowed from  some  neighbor,  without  telling  the  object  to  which  it  is  to 
be  applied ;  as  much  salt  as  can  be  lifted  upon  the  sixpence  is  put  into 
a  tablespoonful  of  water  and  melted  ;  the  sixpence  is  then  put  into  the 
solution,  and  the  soles  of  the  feet  and  palms  of  the  hands  of  the  patient 
are  moistened  three  times  with  the  salt  water ;  it  is  then  tasted  three 
times,  and  the  patient  'scored  aboun  the  breath,'  that  is,  by  the 
operator  dipping  the  fore-finger  into  the  salt  water  and  drawing  it 
along  the  brow.     When  this  is  done,  the  coutents  of  the  spoon  are 


WITCHCRAFT.  40 1 

thrown  behind  and  right  over  the  fire,  the  throwers  at  the  same  time 
saying:  'Lord  preserve  us  from  all  scathe.'"  —  (Brand,  "Pop.  Ant." 
vol.  iii.  p.  47,  art.  "Fascination  of  Witches.") 

Wright  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  at  the  meetings  of  witches, 
"at  times,  every  article  of  luxury  was  placed  before  them,  and  they 
feasted  in  the  most  sumptuous  manner.  Often,  however,  the  meats 
served  on  the  table  were  nothing  but  toads  and  rats,  and  other  articles 
of  a  revolting  nature.  In  general  they  had  no  salt,  and  but  seldom 
bread."  After  these  feasts  came  "  wild  and  uproarious  dancing  and 
revelry.  .  .  .  Their  backs,  instead  of  their  faces,  were  turned  inwards. 
...  It  may  be  observed,  as  a  curious  circumstance,  that  the  modern 
■waltz  is  first  traced  among  the  meetings  of  the  witches  and  their  imps. 
.  .  .  The  songs  were  generally  obscene  or  vulgar,  or  ridiculous."  — 
("Sorcery  and  Magic,"  Thomas  Wright,  London,  1851,  pp.  310,  311, 
328,  329.) 

Eeginald  Scot  also  states  that  the  waltz  was  derived  from  the  dance 
of  the  witches.  —  (See  '*  Discoverie,"  p.  36.) 

The  presents  which  the  devil  gave  to  witches  all  turned  into  filth 
the  next  morning.  —  (See  Grimm,  "  Teut.  Mythol.,"  vol.  iii.  p.  1070.) 

For  a  specimen  of  the  filthy  in  literature,  read  the  dream  of  Zador 
of  Vera  Cruz,  who  wished  to  sell  his  soul  to  the  devil,  iti  "  El  Bachiller 
de  Salamanca,"  Le  Sage,  Paris,  1847,  part  iv.  cap.  2,  p.  129. 

The  best  explanation  of  the  above  story  —  which  represents  Zador  as 
making  a  compact  with  his  Satanic  majesty  whereby  in  exchange  for 
Zador 's  soul  the  devil  discloses  a  gold  mine  in  a  graveyard,  from  which 
the  poor  dupe  extracts  enough  for  his  present  needs,  and  then  marks 
the  locality  by  an  ingenious  method,  only  to  be  awakened  by  his  angry 
wife  to  the  mortifying  consciousness  that  he  has  defiled  his  own  bed 
—  is  that  it  reflects  the  current  opinion  of  the  Spaniards  of  Le  Sage's 
era  in  regard  to  the  transmutability  of  the  gifts  received  from  the  evil 
one.     See  the  story  of  the  god  "  Kutka." 

"  Popular  tales,  which  most  frequently  arise  from  traditions  .  .  . 
are  remnants  of  olden  times,  and  illustrate  them.  .  .  .  When  a  vicious 
or  evil  spirit  is  mentioned  in  any  tale  or  popular  tradition,  I  consider 
it  always  implies  a  reminiscence  of  some  being  who  formerly,  during 
the  supremacy  of  a  religion  now  rejected,  was  worshipped  as  a  god. 
He  is  considered  to  benefit  his  worshippers,  but  to  molest  those  who 
hold  another  belief.  Mankind,  when  in  a  rude  state,  often  attribute 
their  own  intolerance  to  their  gods.  Thus  mankind  creates  his  own 
god  after  his  own  image."  —  (Seven  Nillson,  •'  The  Primitive  Inhabi- 

26 


402  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

tants  of  Scandinavia,"  edited  by  Sir  John  Lubbock,  London,  18G8, 
Preface,  liii.) 

Speculation  would  lead  to  no  profitable  result  were  we  to  endeavor 
by  its  aid  —  the  only  means  now  left  us  —  to  fathom  the  obscurity 
surrounding  the  rites  and  dances,  and  especially  the  foods  of  those 
witches'  gatherings. 

Doctor  Dupuoy,  in  "  Le  Moyen  Age  Medical,"  to  which  special  at- 
tention is  due,  advances  an  opinion  which  seems  to  cover  much  of  the 
ground  in  a  logical  manner.  This  in  one  word,  amounts  to  the  belief 
that  the  witches'  gatherings  of  Europe  were  not  figments  of  the  imagi- 
nation, but  really  existed,  and  were  the  conventions  of  votaries  of  the 
cults  stamped  out  of  existence,  and  only  traceable  in  the  distorted  and 
outlandish  features  which  would  most  naturally  commend  themselves 
to  an  ignorant  peasantry.  "  Among  these  sorcerers  there  were  old  pan- 
derers,  who  knew  from  personal  experience  all  practices  of  debauchery, 
and  who  gave  the  name  of  'vigils'  to  the  saturnalia  indulged  in  among 
villagers  on  certain  nights,  —  gatherings  composed  of  bawds  and  pimps, 
to  which  were  invited  numerous  novices  in  libidinousness.  These  sor- 
cerers and  witches  also  knew  the  remedies  that  young  girls  must  take 
when  they  wish  to  destroy  the  physiological  results  of  their  own  im- 
prudence, and  what  old  men  needed  to  restore  their  virility.  They 
knew  the  medicinal  qualities  of  plants,  especially  those  that  stupefied." 
—  (Translated  by  T.  C.  Minor,  M.D.,  under  title  of  "  Medicine  iu  the 
Middle  Ages,"  p.  40.) 

Tiie  initiates  in  witchcraft  may  have  been  compelled  to  adopt  loath- 
some foods  as  a  test  of  the  sincerity  of  their  purposes,  or  they  may 
have  taken  them  to  induce  an  intoxication  such  as  that  of  the  Zuflis  of 
New  Mexico  and  the  wild  tribes  of  Siberia.  There  is  still  another 
hypothesis  to  be  considered  before  relinquishing  this  topic.  The  best 
food,  we  know,  was  always  offered  to  the  deities  of  the  ruling  sect,  and  the 
\ise  of  any  of  the  appurtenants  of  the  rites  of  the  ruling  religion  in  the 
ceremonial  of  a  superseded  cult  was  looked  upon  as  the  veriest  sacrilege 
and  blasphemy.  For  example,  the  use  of  holy  water  at  the  witches' 
sabbath  was  considered  a  worse  crime  than  that  of  being  a  witch. 
Therefore  we  may  conclude  that,  as  the  votaries  of  the  superseded 
religion  did  not  dare  to  employ  the  best,  they  necessarily  had  to  fall  back 
upon  inferior  material  out  of  which  to  construct  their  oblations ;  and 
as  they  assembled  generally  in  mountain  recesses,  in  caves,  tetc,  where 
nothing  better  could  be  had,  they  offered  themselves  in  sacrifice,  — 
that  is,  they  recurred  to  the  old  practices  of  human  sacrifice,  if  indeed 


WITCHCRAFT.  403 

they  had  ever  abandoned  them,  and  gave  the  pledges  of  their  own 
hair,  saliva,  urine,  and  egestse. 

"  Pure  prayer  ascends  to  Him  that  High  doth  sit, 
Down  falls  the  filth  for  fiends  of  Hell  more  fit." 

Such  was  the   answer  made   to  the   father  of  lies  by  a  venerable 

monk,  — 

"  A  godly  father  sitting  on  a  draught, 
To  do  as  need  and  nature  hath  us  taught." 

The  devil  had  reproached  him  for  saying  his  prayers  at  such  a  moment. 
—  (Haringtou,  "Ajax,"  pp.  33,  34.) 

Mooney  relates  an  instance  of  the  abduction  of  an  Irishwoman  by 
fairies.  She  managed  to  impart  to  her  husband  the  knowledge  of  the 
means  by  which  her  rescue  could  be  accomplished  :  "  He  must  be  ready 
with  some  urine  and  some  chicken-dung,  which  he  must  throw  upon 
her,  and  then  seize  her.  .  .  .  Soon  he  heard  the  fairies  approaching, 
and  when  the  noise  came  in  front  of  him  he  threw  the  dung  and  urine 
in  the  direction  of  the  sound,  and  saw  his  wife  fall  from  her  horse." 
(*'  The  Medical  Mythology  of  Ireland,"  James  Mooney,  Amer.  Phil.  So- 
ciety, 1887.)  The  Irish  peasantry  firmly  believe  in  the  power  of  the 
fairies  to  carry  off  their  children  ;  to  effect  a  restoration,  "  a  wise 
woman  "  is  summoned,  whose  method  is  to  "  heat  the  shovel  in  the 
fireplace,  place  the  changeling  upon  it,  and  put  it  out  upon  the  dung- 
hill." (Idem.)  "  Fire,  iron,  and  dung,  the  three  great  safeguards 
against  the  influence  of  fairies  and  the  infernal  spirits."  —  (Idem.) 

The  peasantry  of  Ireland  carry  about  the  person  "  medicine  bags  " 
very  much  like  those  in  use  among  the  North  American  Indians. 
Among  the  contents  of  these  bags  **  are  usually  found  tobacco,  garlic, 
salt,  chicken-dung,  lus-crea,  and  some  dust  from  the  roadside."  (Idem.) 
This  is  "  carried  as  a  protection  against  the  fairies ;  .  •  .  also  as  a 
protection  against  the  evil  eye  ;  and  something  of  the  same  nature  is 
sewed  into  the  clothing  of  the  bride  when  her  friends  are  preparing 
her  for  the  marriage  ceremony."  —  (Idem.) 

"  A  charm  to  be  said  each  morning  by  a  witch  fasting,  or  at  least 
before  she  goes  abroad  :  '  The  fire  bite,  the  fire  bite ;  hog's  turd  over 
it,  hog's  turd  over  it,  hog's  turd  over  it !  The  Father  with  thee  ;  the 
Son  with  thee  ;  the  Holy  Ghost  between  us  both  to  be ! '  This  last 
refrain  three  times  ;  then  spit  over  one  shoulder,  and  then  over  the 
other,  and  then  three  times  right  forward."  —  (Scot,  "  Discoverie," 
p.  177.) 


404  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  Item.  They  hang  .  .  .  garlicke  in  the  roof  of  the  house  for  to 
keep  away  witches  aud  spirits,  .  .  .  and  so  they  do  alicium  hkewise," 
—  (Idem,  p.  192.) 

GarHc  was  put  in  the  cradle  of  a  new-born  babe  in  Holland.  — 
("Times,"  New  York,  Nov.  10,  1889.) 

Garlic  could  not  be  eaten  by  the  monks  or  nuns  of  Thibet  (Bhiks- 
huni)  ;  to  eat  it  was  considered  a  siu.  "  140.  Si  une  Bhikshuni  mange 
de  Tail,"  etc.  But  in  a  footnote  it  is  stated  that  it  might  be  eaten 
when  it  was  the  only  remedy  for  some  disease  or  infirmity ;  but  even 
then  the  patient  should  not  enter  a  dormitory,  a  latrine,  could  not  ex-v 
pound  the  law,  mingle  with  brahmins,  enter  a  park,  a  market,  or  a 
temple  until  he  had  undergone  a  three  days'  purification,  been  bathed 
and  fumigated. —  (See  "  Pratimoksha  Sutra,"  translated  by  W.  W. 
Rockhill,  Paris,  1885,  Societe  Asiatique.) 


TEMPLE  OR  SACRED  PROSTITUTION.  405 


XLIV. 

A  FEW  REMARKS   UPON   TEMPLE  OR    SACRED    PROSTI- 
TUTION, AND   UPON   THE  HORNS   OF  CUCKOLDS. 

"  ^T^HE  bawds  of  Amsterdam  believed  (in  1637)  that  horse's  dung 
-*-  dropped  before  the  house  and  put  fresh  behind  the  door  .  .  . 
would  bring  good  luck  to  their  houses."  —  ("  Le  Putanisme  d'Amster- 
dam,"  p.  56,  quoted  in  Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  18, 
article  "  Sorcery.") 

While  a  sacred  origin  cannot  be  claimed  for  prostitution  in  general, 
all,  or  nearly  all,  temples  must  in  the  early  ages  of  mankind  have  been 
provided  with  prostitutes.  The  necessity  for  such  a  provision  is  obvi- 
ous. Man's  superstition  and  ignorance  invested  certain  localities,  or 
the  guardian  spirits  of  those  localities,  with  the  power  to  work  him 
weal  or  woe,  unless  kept  in  good  humor  by  oblations  and  sacrifices. 
Temples  were  erected  on  such  foundations,  tended  by  priests,  who 
waxed  fat  and  enriched  themselves,  because  the  right  of  asylum  at- 
tached to  their  position,  although  such  a  right  did  not  absolutely  attach 
to  the  little  communities  which  insensibly  grew  up  around  these 
temples.  The  necessities  of  national  administration  and  of  interna- 
tional or  inter-tribal  arbitration,  would  naturally  attract  periodically  to 
those  temples  the  law-makers,  the  great  chiefs  and  their  followers,  per- 
haps to  settle  their  disputes  or  arrange  their  treaties  by  personal  dis- 
cussion, perhaps  by  the  decision  of  the  arch-priest. 

At  such  gatherings,  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  barter  and  traffic 
would  spring  up,  and  many,  of  a  mercantile  turn  of  mind,  would  realize 
the  advantages  of  a  permanent  residence.  The  sailors  and  merchants 
from  foreign  parts  could  not  always  be  expected  to  behave  with  pro- 
priety ;  they  might,  at  times,  be  as  anxious  to  "  paint  the  town  red  " 
as  the  western  cowboy  is  whenever  he  is  paid  off.  The  women  of  the 
city  would  be  in  constant  danger  of  insult ;  hence,  as  a  wise  pre- 
caution, a  certain  class  of  young  and  attractive  females  were  reserved 
for  the  service  of  the  temples,  —  that  is,  for  the  gratification  of  the 
sexual  passions  of  strangers  and  the  enrichment  of  the  priests. 


406  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Indeed,  until  some  such  mode  of  detail  had  been  devised  and  car- 
ried into  effect,  and  perhaps  long  after  that,  it  seems  to  have  been  the 
custom  for  all  the  women  of  the  city  to  share  in  this  duty ;  we  read 
that,  at  the  temple  of  Mylitta,  it  was  incumbent  upon  each  woman  to 
prostitute  herself  with  a  stranger  at  least  once  in  her  life,  at  the  temple 
of  that  goddess. 

The  priests  would  impart  to  the  prostitutes  a  knowledge  of  charms 
intended  to  secure  good  fortune ;  these  charms  would,  in  course  of 
time,  be  adopted  by  prostitutes  in  general,  who  had  no  connection 
with  the  temple  at  all.  Similar  survivals  can  be  traced  among  gam- 
blers. Gambling  was  at  one  time  a  sacred  method  of  divination. 
Those  who  cast  omens  were  always  on  the  lookout  for  good  signs  and 
bad.  One  of  the  best  signs  was  to  meet  a  man  with  a  hump-back. 
Gamblers  to-day  consider  themselves  fortunate  when  they  can  rub  the 
hump  of  a  cripple. 

This  sacred  prostitution  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Babylo- 
nians. The  Hebrews  had,  attached  to  their  temples,  a  class  of  persons 
of  both  sexes  termed  "  Kadeshim,"  to  whom  the  opprobrious  office  of 
public  prostitution  has  been  attributed  ;  and  in  numerous  other  parts 
of  the  world  the  same  sort  of  personal  degradation  has  been  reported. 
The  women  devoted  to  this  service  wore  a  certain  uniform.  (See  Du- 
laure,  "  Des  Differents  Cultes,"  vol.  ii.  p.  75,  speaking  of  the  "  Kade- 
shoth."  See  also  Smith's  "Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  New  York,  1871, 
articles,  "  Harlot  "  and  "  Sodomite.") 

"  The  sons  of  Eli  lay  with  the  women  that  assembled  at  the  door  of 
the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation."  —  (1  Samuel  ii.  22.) 

"  Throughout  India,  and  also  through  the  densely  inhabited  parts 
of  Asia  and  modem  Turkey,  there  is  a  class  of  females  who  dedicate 
themselves  to  the  service  of  the  Deity  whom  they  adore,  and  the 
rewards  accruing  from  their  prostitution  are  devoted  to  the  service  of 
the  temple  and  the  priests  officiating  therein.  The  temples  of  the 
Hindus  in  the  Dekkan  possessed  these  establishments.  They  had 
bands  of  consecrated  dancing-girls,  called  "  women  of  the  idol,"  selected 
in  their  infancy  by  the  priests  for  the  beauty  of  their  persons,  and 
trained  up  with  every  elegant  accomplishment  that  could  render  them 
attractive."  —  ("  The  Masculine  Cross,"  privately  printed,  188G,  p.  31.) 

Rf'clus  has  a  dissertation  upon  this  subject,  which  concludes  in  these 
words :  "  Aussi  Juvenal  se  permettait  de  demander,  .  .  .  Quel  est  le 
temple  ou  les  femmes  ne  se  prostituent  pas'!"  —  ("Les  Primitifs," 
p.  79.) 


TEMPLE   OR   SACRED   PROSTITUTION.  407 

Lenormant  speaks  of  "  the  sacred  prostitution,  which  was  imposed 
once,  at  least,  in  a  lifetime,  upon  all  women,  even  those  who  were 
free."  —  ("  Chaldean  Magic,"  Francois  Lenormant,  p.  386.) 

"Caindu  is  an  heathenish  nation,  where,  in  honor  of  their  idols, 
they  prostitute  their  wives,  sisters,  and  daughters  to  the  lust  of  trav- 
ellers." —  (Vurchas,  vol.  v.  p.  430.  Caindu  seems  to  have  been  a 
territory  adjacent  to  Thibet.) 

"  Sometimes,  at  the  command  of  a  wizard,  a  man  orders  his  wife  to 
go  to  an  appointed  place,  usually  a  wood,  and  abandon  herself  to  the 
first  person  she  meets.  Yet  there  are  women  who  refuse  to  comply 
with  such  orders."  —  (Patagonia,  "  Voyage  of  Adventure  and  Beagle," 
vol.  ii.  p.  154.) 

"  The  people  of  Khasrowan,  a  Christian  province  in  the  Libanus, 
inhabited  by  a  peculiarly  prurient  race,  also  hold  high  festival  under 
the  far-famed  cedars,  and  their  women  sacrifice  to  Venus,  like  the 
*  Kadeshah '  of  the  Phoenicians.  This  survival  of  old  superstition  is 
unknown  to  missionary  '  hand-books,'  but  amply  deserves  the  study 
of  the  anthropologist."  —  (Burton,  "  Arabian  Nights,"  terminal  essay, 
vol.  X.  230.) 

The  religious  prostitution  of  the  ancient  Babylonians  seems  also  to 
survive,  in  a  small  degree,  in  the  petty  hamlets  of  Kesfin  and  Mar- 
taouan,  near  Aleppo,  in  Syria.  ''  The  women  carry  their  hospital- 
ity as  far  as  those  of  Babylon  of  old.  This  authorized  prostitution 
seems  to  be  a  remnant  of  the  old  Asiatic  superstitions."  —  (Maltebmn, 
"  Universal  Geography,"  vol.  i.  p.  353,  lib.  28.)  Dulaure  cites  the 
case  of  Martuoau,  and  also  quotes  Marco  Polo  in  evidence  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  same  practices  in  Kamul,  near  Tanguth.  —  ("  Des  Dif. 
Cultes,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  598,  599.) 

"  Most  eastern  temples,  and  especially  those  connected  with  the 
solar  cult,  had,  and  for  the  most  part  still  have,  *  Deva-Dasis '  temple, 
or  *  God's  women,'  the  followers  of  Mylitta,  though  generally  not 
seated  so  confessedly  nor  so  prominently  as  those  whom  Herodotus 
describes.  They  were  doubtless  the  women  with  mirrors  (Ezek. 
viii.  14)  who  wept  for  Tamuz,  the  sun-god."  ("Rivers  of  Life," 
Forlong,  vol.  i.  p.  329.)  The  African  goddess  Odudua  promised  pro- 
tection "to  all  those  who  would  establish  themselves  in  this  place,  and 
erect  to  her  a  temple  in  place  of  the  cabin.  !Many  persons  came  and 
established  themselves  here,  and  thus  was  founded  Ado,  which  means 
prostitution  in  memory  of  the  goddess."  —  ("  Fetichism,"  Baudin,  p.  1 7.) 
"  The   temple   erected   in   this  city  is  celebrated  among  the  blacks. 


408  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

The  neighboring  kings  offer  an  ox  to  the  goddess  on  her  feast-day, 
and,  in  accordance  with  the  legend,  impure  games  are  celebrated 
in   her  honor." — (Idem.) 

"  In  the  Babylonian  worship  of  the  goddess  Mylitta,  the  women 
■who  offered  themselves  for  a  price  to  the  stranger  at  the  door  of  the 
temple  were  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  apparel,  according  to  Baruch. 
.  .  .  The  women  sit  in  the  ways,  girded  with  cordes  of  rushes  and 
burnt  straw,  "  and  "their  resting-places  distinguished  with  cords."  — 
(Purchas's  "Pilgrims,"  vol.  v.  p.  56,  art.  "  Hondius'  Babylonia.") 

In  Ireland,  at  the  present  day,  the  peasantry  make  use,  in  divina- 
tion and  witchcraft,  of  "  Saint  Bridget's  cord,"  made  of  rushes,  and 
corresponding  closely  to  the  cord  of  the  goddess  Mylitta. 

We  are  not  informed  that  horns  were  assumed  as  a  distinctive  fea- 
ture of  such  uniform,  but  we  are  constantly  kept  in  mind  of  the  fact 
that  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  deities  of  the  countries  adjacent  to  the 
Mediterranean  were  at  one  time  or  another  represented  with  horns  as 
symbols  of  power.  AVhat,  therefore,  is  more  reasonable  than  to  sup- 
pose that  the  woman  thus  employed  was  decked  with  a  head-dress  of 
horns?  Or  that  her  husband,  without  whose  permission  such  prosti- 
tution would  have  been  impossible,  and  for  whom  it  must  have  been 
an  act  of  equal  religions  importance,  was  similarly  decorated  1 

When  new  religions  had  succeeded  in  trampling  into  the  dust  the 
sacred  usages  of  the  past,  the  fierce  intolerance  of  the  fanatic  would 
have  had  no  greater  delight  than  in  ridiculing  that  which  had  been 
the  distinctive  feature,  perhaps,  of  the  cult  so  recently  overthrown. 
Therefore  the  association  of  horns,  formerly  the  typical  attribute  of 
the  heathen  gods,  would  be  transferred  to  the  betrayed  husband,  and 
what  had  been  the  outward  sign  of  the  most  devout  self-negation 
would  be  turned  into  ridicule  and  opprobrium. 

Brand,  "Pop.  Ant.,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  181  et  seq.  gives  a  perfect  flood  of 
information  on  this  subject,  but  nothing  very  satisfactory  or  definite, — 
art.  "  Cornutes." 

"  Actajon,  a  cuckold  ;  from  the  horns  placed  on  the  head  of  Actseon 
by  Diana."  (Grose,  "Diet,  of  Buckish  Slang,"  London,  1811.)  This 
myth  may  conceal  the  story  of  the  intrusion  of  Acta^on  upon  sacred 
ceremonies  of  prostitution  or  his  personal  association  therewith. 

"  Highgate  ;  sworn  at  Highgate.  A  ridiculous  custom  formerly  pre- 
vailed at  the  public  houses  in  Highgate,  to  administer  a  ludicrous 
oath  to  all  travellers  of  the  middling  class  who  stopped  there.  The 
party  was  swoni  on  a  pair  of  horns,  fastened  on  a  stick ;  the  substance 


I 


TEMPLE   OR   SACRED   PROSTITUTION.  409 

of  the  oath  was  never  to  kiss  the  maid  when  he  could  kiss  the  mis- 
tress ;  never  to  drink  small  beer  when  he  could  get  strong ;  with  many 
other  injunctions  of  the  same  kind,  to  all  of  which  was  added  the 
saving  clause,  —  *  unless  you  like  it  best.'  The  person  administering 
the  oath  was  always  to  be  called  father  by  the  juror,  and  he,  in  return, 
was  to  style  him  son,  under  penalty  of  a  bottle."  -^  (Grose,  "  Dic- 
tionary of  Buckish  Slang.'') 

"  Horn  Fair ;  an  annual  fair,  held  at  Carlton,  in  Kent,  on  Saint  Luke's 
day,  the  18th  of  October.  It  consists  of  a  riotous  mob,  who,  after  a 
printed  summons,  dispersed  through  the  adjacent  towns,  meet  at  Cuck- 
old's Point,  near  Deptford,  and  march  from  thence  in  procession  through 
that  town  and  Greenwich  to  Charlton,  with  horns  of  different  kinds 
upon  their  heads ;  and  at  the  fair  there  are  sold  rams'  horns  and  every 
sort  of  toy  made  of  horn ;  even  the  gingerbread  figures  have  horns. 
The  vulgar  tradition  gives  the  following  history  of  the  origin  of  this 
fiiir.  King  John,  or  some  other  of  our  ancient  kings,  being  at  the 
palace  of  Eltham  in  this  neighborhood,  and  having  been  out  hunting 
one  day,  rambled  from  his  company  to  this  place,  then  a  mean  hamlet, 
when,  entering  a  cottage  to  inquire  his  way,  he  was  struck  with  the 
beauty  of  the  mistress,  whom  he  found  alone ;  and  having  prevailed 
over  her  modesty,  the  husband,  returning  suddenly,  surprised  them 
together,  and  threatening  to  kill  them  both,  the  king  was  obliged  to 
discover  himself,  and  to  compound  for  his  safety  with  a  purse  of  gold, 
and  a  grant  of  the  land  from  this  place  to  Cuckold's  Point,  besides 
making  the  husband  master  of  the  hamlet.  It  is  added  that,  in 
memory  of  this,  the  fair  was  established  for  the  sale  of  horns,  and 
all  sorts  of  goods  made  of  that  material."  —  (Grose,  idem.) 

"  In  Minorca,  the  inhabitants  have  as  much  hatred  of  the  word 
'cuerno'  as  they  have  of  'diablo.'"  (See  Brand,  "Pop.  Ant.," 
vol.  ii.  p.  186,  art.  "Cornutes.")  Possibly  we  have  here  an  example 
of  the  influence  of  the  early  Christian  church  exerted  to  make  detest- 
able everything  connected  with  the  deposed  religion  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. 

The  horn  still  figures  among  the  African  tribes.  "Whenever  one  of 
the  petty  kings  at  the  head  of  the  Nile  "  wishes  to  communicate  with 
another,  he  sends  on  the  messenger's  neck  a  horn,  .  .  .  which  serves 
both  for  credentials  and  security.  .  .  .  No  one  dare  touch  a  Mbakka 
with  one  of  these  horns  upon  his  neck."  —  (Speke,  "  Nile,"  Loudon, 
1863,  vol.  ii.  pp.  509,  521.) 

Bruce  says  that,  after  a  victory,  the  Abyssinian  commanders  wear  a 


410  SCATALOGIC   EITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

head-dress,  surmounted  V)y  a  liorn,  —  a  conical  piece  of  silver,  —  gilt, 
about  four  inches  long,  much  in  the  shape  of  our  common  candle- 
extinguishers.  This  is  called  kern,  or  horn,  and  is  only  worn  in  pa- 
rades or  reviews  after  victory.  This,  I  apprehend,  like  all  other  of 
their  usages,  is  taken  from  the  Hebrews,  and  the  several  allusions 
made  in  Scripture  to  arise  from  this  practice.  "  I  said  \into  fools. 
Deal  not  foolishly,  and  to  the  wicked.  Lift  not  up  the  horn."  And 
so  in  many  other  places  throughout  the  Psalms.  —  (Bruce,  "  Nile," 
Dublin,  1791,  vol.  iii.  p.  551.  See  also  "Encyclopaedia  of  Geography," 
Philadelphia,  1845,  vol.  ii.  p.  588,  art.  "Abyssinia."  See  also  under 
"  Mistletoe ; "  "  Milk,"  and  "  Semen,"  under  "Pharmacy  ; "  extract  from 
Pliny ;  extract  from  Leutilius  ;  extract  from  Etmuller ;  "  Perspiration," 
under  "  Pharmacy,"  and  others.) 

A  "  black  letter "  copy  of  "  ^lalleus  Maleficarum,"  one  of  the 
"incunabula"  from  the  press  of  Peter  SchoefTer,  Mayence,  1487,  was 
carefully  examined;  but  besides  being  very  dim  and  extremely  hard  to 
decipher,  it  contained  nothing  not  already  given  from  other  authorities. 


CURES  BY  TRANSPLANTATION.  411 


XLV. 

CURES  BY   TRANSPLANTATION. 

THE  most  curious  method  of  alleviating  physical  and  mental  dis- 
orders was  that  termed  by  various  writers  :  "  Cures  by  Trans- 
plantation," by  "Translation,"  by  "Sympathy,"  and  by  "Magnetic 
Transference." 

There  is  a  perfect  embarrassment  of  riches  on  this  division  of  our 
subject,  and  the  difficulty  has  been  not  to  select,  but  to  know  what  to 
reject. 

Etmuller  enumerates  five  different  kinds  of  cures  by  transplanta- 
tion :  1.  Insemenation,  wherein  "magnes  mumia"  (the  spirit  dis- 
tilled from  mummy  flesh)  was  used  to  water  the  rich  earth  in  which 
certain  seed  had  been  planted ;  but  care  must  be  taken  in  the  selection 
of  the  plant,  some  being  beneficial,  others  noxious ;  2.  Implantatio, 
where  a  plant,  already  growing,  or  the  root  only  of  such  a  plant  is 
selected,  and  watered  as  above  described;  3.  Impositio,  where  some 
of  the  skin  of  the  diseased  member,  or  some  of  the  patient's  excrement, 
or  anything  else  intimately  connected  with  him,  "  aut  ejus  excremen- 
tum  aut  utrumque,"  is  inserted  between  the  bark  and  body  of  a  tree, 
and  the  opening  then  tamped  with  mud.  But  in  every  case  bear  in 
mind  that  if  a  slow,  gradual  cure  is  to  be  brought  about,  a  slow-grow- 
ing tree  must  be  selected  ;  but  for  a  speedy  recovery,  a  quick-growing 
tree ;  4.  Inoratio,  in  which  daily  certain  trees  or  plants,  until  cure 
results,  are  to  be  watered  with  the  "urina,  sudore,  fecibus  alvi  vel 
lotura  membri  aut  totius  corporis;"  but  it  is  recommended  that  each 
irrigation  be  covered  up  with  earth,  to  keep  out  the  air ;  5.  Inescatio, 
where  "mummy"  is  given  to  an  animal  to  eat;  the  animal  will  die, 
the  patient  recover. 

Human  ordure  was  a  frequent  addition  to  the  "spiritus  mumise." 

Frommann  opens  the  way  to  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  principles 
upon  which  these  cures  depended.  He  states  that  not  all  diseases  were 
thus  curable  ;  only  those  which  in  themselves  were  "movable."     Poi- 


412  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

son  could  not  be  so  cured,  because  its  lethal  action  was  effected  too 
quickly  for  the  slow-moving  remedial  agency  of  transplantation.  Jnju- 
ries  to  the  "vital  faculties,*'  such  as ''aneurisms  of  the  aorta,"  etc., 
were  not  transplantable.  Worms  ditto,  although  they  were  able  to 
move  of  their  own  will.  "  Lipothymia  "  or  syncope,  was  not  transfer- 
able. All  "transplantable"  diseases  were  called  "saline"  diseases,  be- 
cause, according  to  the  medical  theories  prevailing  in  those  days,  they 
originated  in  some  defect  of  the  "  salts  "  of  the  body.  —  (See  From- 
mann,  "Tract,  de  Fascinatione,"  pp.  1017,  1018.) 

Among  the  strongest  "  magnetic  "  medicines,  according  to  Paracelsus, 
was  the  one  "ex  stercore  humano."  —  (See  Etmuller,  vol.  i.  p.  69.) 

There  was  another  :  "  Take  a  sufficient  quantity  of  the  ordure  of  a 
healthy  man,  and  make  it  into  a  poultice  with  human  urine,  to  which 
add  sweat  gathered  from  the  body  with  a  sponge ;  place  this  in  a  clean 
place  in  the  shade  until  it  dries,  and  when  needed  for  use,  moisten  with 
human  blood.  "  Recipe  copiosum  stercus  hominis  sani,  et  hoc  cum 
urina  ejusdem  misce,  redige  in  consistentiam  pultis,  adde  quantum 
habere  potes  sudoris  ex  hominibus  sanis  a  linteo  aut  spongia  collecti, 
ponantur  simul  in  loco  mundo  in  umbra  donee  siccentur,  hinc  adde  san- 
guinem  recentem,  misce,  sicca,  et  ad  usum  reserva." 

Etmuller  also  mentions  a  "  sympathetic  "  cure  for  quartan  ague,  in 
which  the  hair  of  the  patient  was  to  be  mixed  with  food  and  thrown  to 
birds,  which,  swallowing  the  food,  took  away  the  fever. 

Another  method  was  to  take  the  clippings  of  the  toe  and  finger 
nails  of  the  sick  person,  place  them  in  an  egg  and  throw  them  to  the 
birds ;  others  again  wrap  them  up  in  wax  and  early  in  the  morning, 
before  the  rising  of  the  sun,  affix  the  parcel  to  the  door  of  a  neighbor's 
house,  or  else  tie  it  to  the  back  of  a  living  crab,  and  throw  the  crab 
back  into  the  stream  :  "  Sunt  cui  ad  curandam  febrem  segmenta  e 
manibus  et  pedibus  ovo  includunt,  avibusque  devoranda  objiciunt;  alii 
eadem  ceroe  involvunt,  matutinoque  tempore  ante  solis  ortum  janufe 
affigunt,  aliii  dorso  cancri  vivi  alligant,  cancrumque  fluenti  commit- 
tunt."  — (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  265.) 

The  first  excrement  of  a  man  sick  with  dysentery  was  mixed  with 
salt  as  a  "  magnetic  "  cure ;  to  this,  some  people  added  the  powder  of 
eel-skins  (Frommann,  "  Tractatus,"  p.  1012,  et  seq.).  Yellow  jaundice 
patients  urinated  upon  clean  linen  sheets ;  if  they  succeeded  in  dyeing 
them  yellow  they  would  recover  soon  ;  if  not,  not  (p.  1012)  ;  roots  wet 
with  the  patient's  urine  were  burned  as  a  cure  for  the  yellow  jaundice  (p. 
1013)  ;  all  the  clothing  of  an  epileptic  patient  was  burned,  and  the  ashes 


CURES  BY  TRANSPLANTATIOIf.  413 

thrown  in  a  stream,  down-stream  (p.  1013)  ;  especially  was  this  the 
case  if  any  of  it  had  been  defiled  by  alviue  dejections  voided  in  one  of 
the  paroxysms ;  and  the  same  care  was  taken  to  burn  this  excrement 
(p.  1013).  (Note  that  epilepsy  was  always  regarded  as  the  sacred 
disease ;  here  we  have  a  suggestion  of  human  sacrifice.) 

The  method  of  curing  by  digging  up  the  ground,  depositing  some 
plant  and  enriching  the  surrounding  soil  with  the  patient's  egestse  is 
given  by  Frommann  (p.  1016)  ;  but  the  trees  or  plants  to  be  selected 
for  this  purpose  were  to  be  those  of  forests  or  those  which  bore  edil)le 
fruits,  "  ut  fraxinus,  quercus,  betula,  tilia,  fagus,  aluus,"  etc.  (Ash,  ouk, 
birch,  linden,  beech,  alder,  etc.)  The  animals  had  to  be  such  as  did 
not  eat  human  flesh,  as  "canes,  feles,  equi,  lupi,  vulpes;  "  others  could 
be  used  on  occasion,  but  the  results  were  not  so  sure  (idem,  p.  1017). 
There  were  two  general  methods:  one,  in  which  the  "sanguis,  pili, 
excrementa"  of  the  patient  himself  were  offered;  the  other,  in  which 
crabs,  meat,  eggs,  lard,  apples,  and  other  things,  were  rubbed  to  the 
affected  parts  and  then  offered  (idem.) 

Beckherius  gives  the  recipe  for  effecting  a  "  sympathetic  cure  "  of 
fever  by  clipping  the  finger  and  toe-nails  of  the  patient  and  tying  these 
clippings  in  a  rag  to  the  door  of  a  neighbor's  house.  "  Si  resegmine 
unguium  e  manibus  et  pedibus  deprompta,  cera  involvantur,  matutini- 
noque  tempore  ante  solis  exortum  aliens^  jauuse  affiguntur."  And 
wicked  people  wei*e  in  the  habit  of  preparing  a  draught  composed  of 
equal  parts  of  their  dirty  finger-nails  and  cautharides,  and  whoever 
drank  that  in  his  liquor  fell  into  a  condition  of  atrophy  (Med.  mic. 
pp.  15,  16).  When  the  patient's  own  hair  was  used  in  these  cures,  it 
was  placed  in  an  egg  and  thrown  to  chickens.  —  (Idem,  p.  8,) 

Frommann  speaks  of  enclosing  fragments  of  the  patient's  nails  and 
clippings  of  his  hair  in  knots  and  throwing  these  in  the  road  to  be  un- 
tied by  some  curious  person  who  would  catch  the  disease.  —  ("  Tract, 
de  Fascinatione,"  p.  1003.) 

The  blood,  urine,  or  excrement  of  the  patient  was  to  be  placed  in  an 
egg-shell  and  fed  to  barn-yard  fowl.  —  (Idem.) 

"  Id  quod  alio  modo  per  urinam  segri  quoque  fieri  valet;  qua  ratione 
cum  sanguine,  urina,  excrementis,  segrotantis  multse  sympathetica) 
curse  fieri  possunt ; "  and  to  this  class  belong  such  remedies  as  cutting 
an  apple  or  a  piece  of  bacon  in  half,  then  hanging  the  piece  up  in  the 
chimney  to  melt  or  rot ;  as  fast  as  this  was  effected,  the  disease  disap- 
peared. Speaking  of  transplantation,  he  says  :  "  Prioris  exemplum 
est  dum  applicato  stercore  humano  ad  certam  aliquam  partem  trans- 


414  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIO^'S. 

plantatur  eo  ipso  morbo  in  plautarn  cujus  semen  in  terram  hoc  ster- 
core  mistam  infcritur."  The  first  example  is  where  tlie  ordure  of  the 
patient  is  apphed  to  a  certain  plant,  and  thus  transfers  the  disease 
from  the  patient  to  the  plant.  —  (Etmuller,  "  Opera  Omnia,"  vol,  i. 
p.  G9,  Lyons,  169G.) 

Etmuller  teaches  that  clippings  of  the  toe  and  finger  nails  tied  to 
the  back  of  a  living  crab,  which  was  then  to  be  thrown  into  a  stream 
by  a  man  who  would  perform  the  duty  and  return  home  without  speak- 
ing would  etfect  cures ;  similarly,  for  the  alleviation  of  gout,  he  recom- 
mends that  these  clippings  be  buried  in  a  hole  made  in  the  bark  of  an 
oak  which  should  then  be  closed  with  a  wedge  :  "  Abscinduntur  ungues 
manuum  et  pedum,  alligantur  dorso  caucri  viventis,  et  cancer  istis 
unguibus  oneratus,  immittitur  in  flumen  retrofaciem  redeundo  sine 
loquela,  donee  in  domum  facta  fuerit  reversio.  lustituuntur  qq.  trans- 
plautationes  pro  viribus  recuperandis  per  ungues.  Sic  in  podagrje. 
.  .  .  E. ;  Ungues  pedis,  atque  immittuntur  in  foramen  excavatum  in 
quercum  et  super  foramen  ponunt  cuneum  ex  quo  subito  fit,  ut  re- 
mittat  dolor  ac  desinat  Podagra"  (vol.  ii.  p.  270.) 

Etmuller  mentions  the  cure  by  tying  the  fragments  of  finger  and 
toe  nails  to  a  crab,  in  another  place  in  his  works.  For  the  recovery  of 
impaired  strength,  these  clippings  should  be  buried  in  the  bark  of  a 
cherry-tree,  which  should  then  be  closed  with  ordure  :  "  Ad  recuper- 
andos  vires  abscissos  ungues  et  capillos  cerasi  radici  incisse  imponunt, 
vulnusque  fimo  co-operiunt."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  265.) 

"Denique  si  quid  aliud  singulare  est  si  quis  accipiat  ovum  recens, 
hoc  coquat  cum  uriua  propria  ad  assumptionem  medietatis,  quo  facto 
urina  superstes  projiciatur  in  flumen  secundum  ejusdem  cursum,  ovum 
vel  ita  coctum  leviter  apertur  immittatur  in  acervnm  formicarum. 
Unde  quando  formless  assumpserunt  ovum  soluteni  erit  fascinuni " 
(idem,  vol.  i.  p.  4G2).  "Finally,  there  is  this  singular  method  of 
taking  a  fresh  egg  and  putting  it  in  some  of  the  patient's  own  urine, 
which  is  boiled  down  one  half;  the  supernatant  urine  is  then  to  be 
thrown  into  a  stream  (down  current)  and  the  egg  itself  buried  in  an 
ant-heap ;  as  fast  as  the  ants  consume  the  egg,  the  effects  of  the  witch- 
craft vanish." 

Again,  for  the  cure  of  gout,  toe  and  finger  nails  were  to  be  cut  and 
placed  in  an  aperture  in  the  bark  of  an  oak-tree :  "  Vel  dnm  ungues 
pedum  abscissi  et  in  quercum  terebratam  inclusi,  hominem  liberuiu 
reddunt  a  podagra." —  (Idem,  p.  69,  vol.  i.) 

Urine  was  of  great  use  in  curing  people  bitten  by  serpents.     "  Per 


CURES  BY  TRANSPLANTATION.  415 

urinam  solent  fieri  curationes  magico-magnetica;  morborum,  si  scillicet 
lardura  vel  potius  caro  porcina  coquatiir  ter  in  urina  scgri  et  caro  lata 
iucoctionis  urinse  postmodum  propinetur  caui  vel  porco  devoranda,  sic 
enim  sit,  ut  quam  plurimi  morbi  curentur  per  transplantationem  in 
animalia  quse  devorant  carnem  et  urinam."  —  (Etmuller,  p.  271.) 

Hog-lard  or  a  lardy  hog-skin,  rubbed  on  warts  and  then  suspended 
in  the  chimney  or  buried  in  horse-dung,  caused  the  warts  to  disappear 
as  fast  as  it  decayed.  "  Suspendatur  in  camiuo  furni,  vel  in  fimo 
equino  sepeliatur.  .  .  Sicut  exsiccatur  in  fumo,  vel  putrescit  in  finio 
lardura  ita  exsiccetur  et  putrescat  verruca."  (Idem.)  Half  a  dozen 
methods  of  employing  hog-dung  are  given. 

Frommann  quotes  Ratray  as  saying  from  his  own  observation  that 
there  was  a  "  sympathy  "  between  the  patient's  urine  when  enclosed  iu 
a  glass  vial  and  the  condition  of  the  patient  himself,  —  a  sort  of  "  baro- 
metrical "  sympathy,  as  we  would  term  it.  At  an  earlier  period  of 
culture  the  urine  would  have  been  placed  in  the  horn  of  a  goat,  or  in 
the  bladder  of  a  hog. 

The  methods  of  effecting  these  cures  by  placing  the  patient's  urine 
in  an  ants'  nest,  in  any  manner,  are  all  given  by  Johannes  Christianus 
Frommann  ("  Tract,  de  Fascinat.,"  pp.  1004  et  seq.)  ;  also  the  method 
by  boiling  an  egg  in  the  urine  and  placing  the  egg  in  the  nest  of  ants 
(p.  1005)  ;  also  the  method  of  making  bread  with  the  patient's  urine, 
and  giving  the  bread  to  a  dog  to  eat  (p.  1005).  In  Italy  thei-e  was  a 
variant  of  this  custom,  consisting  in  giving  bread  made  with  the  urine 
of  a  male  patient  to  a  male  dog,  and  that  made  with  the  urine  of  a  sick 
woman  to  a  bitch  (idem).  Yellow  jaundice  was  cured  by  boiling  a 
piece  of  meat  in  the  patient's  urine  and  giving  said  meat  to  a  dog 
(idem)  ;  for  the  cure  of  rupture  the  patient  should  soak  some  barley 
iu  his  urine,  and  then  bury  the  barley  in  the  bark  of  a  tree  (p.  1007). 
Another  mode  of  cure  by  transplantation  was  for  the  patient  to  urinate 
in  a  vial  of  glass,  stop  it  up  with  a  linen  rag  or  a  paper  wad,  and  bury 
it  in  the  earth  (p.  1010).  For  the  cure  of  yellow  jaundice,  the  patient 
dug  a  hole  in  the  ground  and  urinated  therein  before  sunrise  (pp.  1010, 
1011) ;  for  the  cure  of  dysentery  the  patient  deposited  his  excrement 
on  a  piece  of  ash  and  left  it  in  a  hole  (p.  1011)  ;  fever  patients  threw 
their  excrement  in  a  stream  (idem).  Other  modes  were  to  make  a  mix- 
ture of  the  urine  of  the  sick  man,  mixed  with  ashes,  let  the  mass  dry 
in  the  sun,  and  then  put  it  by  the  embers  of  the  kitchen  fire  to  bake 
(p.  1012)  ;  the  ordure  of  a  man  sick  from  "  incantation  "  was  applied 


416  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

to  the  place  of  the  spell,  and  then  hung  up  (enclosed  in  a  hog's  bladdei) 
for  three  days  in  the  smoke  of  the  chimney  (idem). 

In  his  long  and  most  interesting  chapter  upon  the  cure  of  diseases  by 
the  use  of  human  ordure,  "  magically  or  sympathetically,"  Schurig  re- 
lates many  quaint  and  curious  methods  of  employment  of  the  alvine 
dejections  of  those  supposed  to  be  almost  in  articulo  mortis.  For  ex- 
ample, the  ordure  of  the  patient  was  taken,  placed  in  the  hollow  of  a 
dead  man's  bone,  which  was  then  thrown  into  boiling  water.  This 
remedy,  if  we  can  trust  Schurig,  seems  to  have  been  of  the  highest 
efficacy.  Another  mode  was  to  mix  the  ordure  with  the  lees  of  wine 
and  the  pounce  of  cherries,  and  let  the  mass  ferment  together  ;  or 
the  ordure  was  collected  and  thrown  into  running  water.  —  (See 
Schurig,  "  Chylologia,"  pp.  783,  784.  The  whole  chapter  "  De  Ster- 
coris  Humani  Usu  Wagico  seu  Sympathetico,"  No.  xiii.  should  be 
read.) 

Goat-urine  was  applied  to  sore  eyes  ;  but  a  more  certain  cure  in  grave 
cases  was  additionally  effected  by  hanging  some  of  it  in  a  goat's  horn 
for  twenty  days.  "  Si  cum  cornu  caprae  suspenditur  diebus  viginti."  — 
(Sextiis  Placitus,  "  De  Med.  ex  Animal.,"  article  "  De  Capro.") 

Beckherius  has  a  "  sympathetic "  cure  for  the  yellow  jaundice. 
Make  a  poultice  of  horse-dung  and  the  patient's  own  urine,  and  hang 
it  up  in  the  chimney.  "Fimum  equinum  cum  urina  segri  sic  misce, 
ut  pultis  referat  consistentiam,  hajc  linteolo  excipe,  et  in  camino  sus- 
pende  ut  fumo  semper  sunt  exposita."  ("Med.  Microcos.,"  p.  65.) 
Another  was  to  hang  the  urine  of  the  patient  in  a  bladder  in  the 
chimney  ;  as  the  urine  evaporated  the  patient  was  to  recover.  "  Pro- 
priam  urinam  vesica  suilla  excerpisse  et  banc  in  fumo  exposuisse 
seque  observasse  ad  exsiccationem.  Urina  in  vesica  ipsum  quoque 
icteritiam  evanuisse."  (Idem,  p.  65.)  Another  cure  of  yellow  jaun- 
dice was  a  dose,  morning  and  evening,  of  a  mixture  of  human  urine 
and  horse-radish.  (Idem,  p.  66.)  There  was  still  another  "  sympa- 
thetic "  cure  :  the  patient  urinated  in  a  vessel,  which  was  allowed  to 
evaporate  by  the  fire,  and  this  was  continued  for  nine  days.  —  (Idem, 
p.  66.) 

For  consumption  Beckherius  gives  a  "  sympathetic  "  cure  (already 
noted  from  other  sources)  of  boiling  an  egg  in  the  patient's  urine  until 
it  hardens,  and  then  burying  it  in  an  ant-hill.  (Idem,  p.  75.)  The 
same  cure  was  employed  in  fevers.     (Idem.) 

A  pinch  of  salt,  the  size  of  a  big  bean,  was  wrapped  in  a  linen  rag, 
and  dipped  in  the  urine  of  the  patient  for  a  whole  day ;  then  heated  iu 


CURES   BY   TRANSPLANTATION.  417 

the  fire  until  it  became  reddish  in  color  ;  some  of  this  was  sprinkled  on 
bread,  and  the  patient  rubbed  with  it  morning  and  evening.  —  ("  Medi- 
cus  Microcosmus/'  pp.  75,  76.) 

A  fresh  egg  was  boiled  in  the  sick  person's  iirine,  and  then  thrown 
to  the  fishes.  "  Receus  ovum  in  uriua  segri  quod  in  piscinam  ubi 
pisces  sunt  conjiciatur,  et  momento  febrem  cessare  dicunt." — (Idem, 
p.  78.) 

Still  another  was  to  make  a  cake  out  of  flour  moistened  with  the 
urine  of  the  sick  ;  throw  this  to  the  fishes.  The  fishes  who  ate  it 
would  take  the  disease,  and  the  patient  recover.  "  Subige  farinam 
cum  urina  segri  ad  formam  placentulse  ;  coque  hcec  in  fomo,  instar 
panis  objice  piscibus,  ut  ab  iis  devoretur;  abit  febris,  maxime  quar- 
tana."  —  (Idem.) 

Frommanu  devotes  a  long  chapter  to  cures  by  "transplantation." 
He  cites  from  Pliuy  the  method  of  curing  a  bad  cough  by  spitting 
into  the  mouth  of  a  toad  (tree-toad  ;  see  notes  already  taken),  and 
also  gives  another  in  which  the  urine  of  the  patient  made  into  a 
dough  with  flour,  was  given  to  a  dog  or  hog.  —  ("  Tract,  de  Fascinat." 
p.  1002.) 

Frommann  believed  with  Von  Helmont  that  there  was  nothing  super- 
stitious about  such  cures,  because  there  were  no  rites  and  no  incanta- 
tions used.  (Idem,  p.  1033.)  But  later  on,  he  mentions  having  heard 
a  woman  (svlio  was  trying  one  of  these  cures  by  rolling  some  of  her 
son's  hair  in  wax  and  burying  the  wax  ball  in  an  incision  in  an  apple- 
tree)  recite  certain  words,  which  she  declined  to  repeat  for  him  when 
asked ;  hence  he  was  in  some  doubt  about  her  particular  case  (p.  1034). 
He  quotes  the  English  Count  of  Digby  as  stating  that  he  knew  of  a 
nurse  who  carelessl}'  allowed  some  of  a  baby's  excrement  to  be  burned 
up  in  a  fire  ;  the  result  was  the  child  suffered  terribly  from  excoriation 
of  the  fundament  (p.  1038).  The  way  in  which  a  cure  was  effected  iu 
this  case  was  the  "  sympathetic  "  one  of  placing  the  baby's  excrements 
for  three  days  in  a  basin  filled  with  cold  water,  and  exposing  in  a  cold 
place  (p.  1039). 

Dropsy  was  cured  by  hanging  the  patient's  urine  (enclosed  in  a 
pig's  bladder)  up  in  a  chimney,  and  neglecting  all  other  remedies. 
"  Urinam  ejus  recentem  vesica  suilla  conclusam  in  camino  suspendi, 
curavi.  (Idem,  p.  1047.)  A  young  virgin  was  cured  of  a  tertian 
fever  by  giving  to  a  hen  bread  made  with  the  urine  voided  during  the 
paroxysms.  The  girl  recovered  ;  the  hen  died.  "  Virginis  cujusdara 
febre  iutermitteute  tertiana  laborantis  urinam  calidam  in  paroxysmo 

27 


418  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

redditam    gallinse    familicae    cum    pane    mistam    exhiberi    curavi " 
(p.  1047). 

See  also  notes  from  Samuel  Augustus  Flemming,  under  "  Per- 
spiration." 

Dr.  Joseph  Lanzoni  did  not  believe  that  any  good  results  followed 
the  suspension  above  the  earth,  in  a  sow's  bladder,  of  human  urine  in 
cases  of  suppression  of  urine,  as  was  often  to  be  noticed  among  Jews 
and  some  of  the  religious  orders.  "  Urince  suppressionem  minime 
referare  vesicam  suis  suspensam,  quse  non  tetigit  terram,  quod  nonnulli 
volunt,  observavi  in  quodam  Religioso  et  Hebrseo."  —  ("  Phemer. 
Physic-Medic,"  Leipsig,  1694,  vol.  i.  p.  49.) 

Paullini  taught  that  fevers  of  all  kinds  could  be  cured  by  pouring 
the  patient's  urine  into  a  fish-pond,  "  Such  of  the  fish  as  drink  of 
that  water,"  he  says,  "  will  receive  the  fever,  which  will  leave  the 
sick  man." 

For  the  "  sympathetic "  cure  of  epilepsy,  all  the  clothing  worn  by 
the  patient  during  the  paroxysm,  even  his  shoes,  were  to  be  carefully 
burned,  and  the  ashes  cast  into  flowing  water.  More  than  this ;  if, 
during  the  attack,  the  patient  had  defecated,  the  ordure  was  collected, 
and  with  everything  touched  by  it,  burned  up  with  the  same  care. 
"  Hominis  epilepticum  insultum  primum  patientis  sive  junior  sit,  sive 
senior  indumenta  omnia  et  vestes  indusium,  calcei,  tibialis,  et  similia 
sub  dio  comburantur,  et  in  cinerem  redigantur  ;  cinis  vero  in  aquam 
fluvialem  secundum  flumen  projiciatur.  Si  autem  jam  ante  homo 
epilepsia  laboravit,  ad  alvi  excrementa  in  ipso  paroxysmo  reddita  at- 
tendatur ;  qu£e  si  adest  res  commaculata  cum  ipsis  excrementis  modo 
jam  dicto  comburatur."  —  (Schurig,  "  Chylologia,"  p.  1013,  quoting 
Frommann.) 

Schurig  gives  the  recipe  of  Johannes  Philippus  ab  Hertodt  for  the 
preparation  of  a  "  sympathetic  "  powder,  which  serves  to  inform  us  as 
to  the  incoherent  ideas  of  the  practitioners  of  a  couple  of  centuries 
ago.  Freely  translated,  it  reads,  "Take  of  a  healthy  human  mummy, 
moistened  with  a  little  urine  ;  let  it  be  dried  in  a  place  exposed  to  an 
east  wind,  but  not  to  the  sun,  until  it  shall  be  reduced  to  powder ; 
this  is  to  be  mixed  with  an  equal  weight  of  cream  of  tartar,  and  the 
*  sympathetic  powder  of  vitriol,'  prepared  according  to  formula,  in  the 
dog-days ;  or  of  the  salt  of  Hungarian  vitriol,  heated  to  whiteness  in 
a  furnace.  A  pinch  of  this  sympathetic  powder  should  be  sprinkled 
upon  the  feces  of  the  sick  person,  or  upon  a  cloth  dipped  in  his  xirine, 
and  then  preserved  in  a  cool  place.     Its  efficacy  was  vouched  for  in 


CURES  BY  TRANSPLANTATION.  419 

the  highest  terms  :  "  Effective  curat  omnia  vulnera,  ulcera,  febrcs 
pctechiales,  et  iirina  fabulum,  poriculosissimas  hsemorrhagias  puerpe- 
rariim,  arthriditem  quamcunque,  podagram  et  illam  vagara  dictam, 
pulmonis  apostemata,  htemorrhoides  nimias,  narium  fluxus  immo- 
dicos,  capitis  dolores,  catarrhos,  fluxos  albos  mulienim,  menstrua  copi- 
osa,  morsus  canis  rabidi,  vel  alterium  cujuscunque  auimalis,  item 
mammas  ulceratas."  —  (Schurig,  pp.  775,  776.) 

Schurig  adds  a  number  of  these  ciires  for  dysentery,  such  as 
placing  the  dejecta  in  the  retort  used  for  the  distillation  of  vitriol, 
.  .  .  sprinkling  such  dejecta  with  salt,  or  with  vitriol,  or  mixing  them 
with  hot  ashes  and  live  coals;  preferably,  the  excrement  to  be  thus 
employed  should  be  the  first  ejected  having  a  bloody  tinge. 

"The  various  modes  of  application  of  these  remedies  are  too  long  for 
insertion  here,  but  are  valuable  to  the  student  as  showing  how  deep- 
seated  was  the  belief  in  the  occult  properties  of  the  excreta  them- 
selves."— ("  Chylologia,"  pp.  785,  786.) 

The  following  is  au  old  French  "  sympathetic  "  recipe  for  the  cure 
of  all  kinds  of  colic  :  "  Pour  la  colique  ce  sera  ici  la  recette  d'un  vilaiu 
remede,  mais  pourtant  sympathique  en  ceux  qui  sont  tourment^s  de 
la  colique,  car  s'ils  mettent  sous  la  selle  percee  bien  fermde  de  la  fiente 
de  vach^  fraichement  recueillie,  et  qu'ils  pissent  et  dechargent  les 
excrements  de  leur  ventre  dessns,  par  sympathie  sans  difficulte  ils 
aiiront  du  soulagement."  —  (Lazarus  Neyssonier,  quoted  by  Schurig, 
"  Chylologia,"  pp.  784,  785.) 

For  the  "sympathetic"  cure  of  hernia,  the  root  of  the  herb  "wall- 
wort  "  was  smeared  with  the  ordure  of  the  patient,  and  then  buried 
in  the  ground.  "  Radicem  Symphti  Oleto  Proprio  delibutam  et  in 
terram  defossam."  —  (Idem,  p.  787.) 

To  stop  hemorrhage  "sympathetically,"  whether  from  wounds  or 
other  injuries,  some  of  the  flowing  blood  was  taken,  and  mixed  with 
the  ordure  of  the  patient,  and  the  mixture  then  exposed  in  a  jar  to 
the  action  of  the  air.  "Contra  hsemorrhagias,  sive  in  laesonibus  et 
vulneribus,  ut  sanguis  sistatur,  misce  sanguinem  ex  sanguine  proflu- 
entem  cum  proprio  stercore  et  in  olla  ad  dessicandum  aeri  libero 
expone." —  (Idem,  p.  787.) 

A  patient  suffering  from  yellow  jaundice  should  urinate  upon  horse- 
dung  while  warm.  This  same  remedy  seems  to  have  been  in  vogue  in 
helping  women  in  the  expulsion  of  the  placenta.  One  of  the  pre- 
scriptions given  by  Schurig  states  that  the  horse-dung  must  be  from 


420  SCATALOGIC  KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

an  animal  that  was  not  tired  at  the  time  of  the  evacuation,  —  "  non 
defiitigati."  —  (Idem,  p.  812  et  seq.) 

A  "  sympathetic  "  cure  by  the  use  of  the  dung  of  horses  seems  to 
be  implied  in  the  case  of  infants'  small-pox,  where  we  find  it  suspended 
in  beer ;  "  pendatur  in  cerevisiam  .  .  .  propterea  ne  fauces  affligantur 
a  variolis  quod  alias  solet  esse  casus  periculosissimus."  —  (Etmuller, 
vol.  ii.  p.  264.) 

"  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  practice  was  at  one  time  verj'-  general, 
but  it  would  now  be  a  waste  of  time  to  go  into  particulars  respecting 
the  various  compositions  of  the  sympathetical  carers;  the  manner  in 
which  their  vitriol  was  to  be  prepared  by  exposure  for  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  days  to  the  sun,  the  unguents  of  human  fat  and  blood, 
mummy,  moss  of  dead  man's  skull,  bull's  blood  and  fat,  and  other 
disgusting  ingredients."  —  ("  Medical  Superstitions,"  Pettigrew,  Phil- 
adelphia, 1844,  p.  200.) 

For  ague,  "  let  the  urine  of  the  sick  body,  made  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, be  softly  heated  nine  daies  continually  untill  all  be  consumed 
into  vapour." —  (Reginald  Scot,  "  Discoverie,"  p.  196.) 

In  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  "ague  in  a  boy  is  cured  by  a  cake 
made  of  barley-meal  and  his  urine,  and  given  to  a  dog  to  eat ;  the 
dog,  in  the  case  cited,  had  a  shaking  fit,  and  the  boy  was  cured." 
("  Folk-Medicine,"  Black,  p.  35.  In  a  footnote  there  is  added,  "  Petti- 
grew, *  Superstitions  connected  with  the  practice  of  Medicine  and  Sur- 
gery,' p.  77.")  Madame  de  Scudery  mentions  a  similar  cure  for  fever 
in  a  letter  of  date  20th  of  October,  1077,  to  the  Comte  de  Bussy. 
Speaking  of  an  abbe  of  fame,  "  On  dit  qu'il  ne  fait  que  prendre  pour 
toutes  les  fievres  de  Purine  des  malades  dans  laquelle  il  fait  durcir  un 
oeuf  hors  de  sa  coque,  aprcs  quoi  il  le  donne  a  manger  h,  un  chien  qui 
prcnd  en  meme  temps  la  fievre  du  malade  qui  par  ce  moicn  en  guerit. 
C'est  une  question  de  fait  que  je  n'ay  pas  eprouvee."  —  ("  Notes  and 
Queries,"  5th  series,  vol.  viii.  p.  126.) 

The  following  are  given  as  cures  by  "  transplantation."  "  Seven  or 
nine  —  it  must  be  an  odd  number  —  cakes,  made  of  the  newly  emitted 
urine  of  the  patient,  with  the  ashes  of  ash  wood,  and  buried  for  some 
days  in  a  dunghill,  will,  according  to  Paracelsus,  cure  the  yellow 
jaundice."  In  the  journal  of  Dr.  Edward  Browne,  transmitted  to  his 
father.  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  we  read  of  "  a  mngical  cure  for  the  jaun- 
dice :  Bum  wood  under  a  laden  vessel  filled  with  water ;  take  the  ashes 
of  that  wood,  and  boyle  it  with  the  patient's  urine ;  then  lay  nine  long 
heaps  of  the  boyld  ashes  upon  a  board  in  a  rank,  and  upon  every  heap 


CURES   BY   TRANSPLANTATION.  421 

lay  niue  spears  of  crocus."  —  ("  Medical  Superstitions,"  Pettigrew, 
Philadelphia,  Penn.,  1844,  p.  103.) 

We  are  likewise  informed  of  "  the  cure  of  jaundice  by  the  burying 
in  a  dunghill  a  cake  made  of  ashes  and  the  patient's  urine.  Ague  in 
a  boy  was  cured  by  a  similar  cuke  made  of  barley-meal  and  his  urine, 
and  given  to  a  dog  to  eat ;  the  dog  had  a  shaking  fit,  and  the  boy  was 
cured." 

"  Boys  were  cured  of  warts  by  taking  an  elder-stick  and  cutting  as 
many  notches  in  it  as  there  were  warts,  and  then  rubbing  it  upon  the 
warts,  and  burying  it  in  a  dunghill."  —  (Idem,  p.  104.) 

"Blisters  on  the  tongue  are  caused  by  telling  fibs.  When  they 
show  no  disposition  to  leave,  the  following  process  is  adopted.  Three 
small  sticks  are  cut  from  a  tree,  each  about  the  length  of  a  (inger,  and 
as  thick  as  a  pencil ;  these  are  inserted  in  the  mouth,  and  buried  in  a 
dnng-hill ;  the  next  day  the  operation  is  repeated,  as  well  as  on  the 
third  day  ;  after  which  the  three  sets  of  sticks  are  allowed  to  remain 
in  the  manure,  and  as  they  decay  the  complaint  will  disappear."  — 
("Folk-Lore  of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans,"  Hoffman,  p.  28.) 

"The  following  procedure  for  the  cure  of  bronchitis  is  still  practised 
in  Berks  County.  Make  a  gimlet  hole  in  the  door-frame,  at  the  exact 
lieight  of  the  patient's  head,  into  which  insert  a  small  tuft  of  his  hair, 
and  close  the  hole  with  a  peg  of  wood ;  then  cut  off  the  projecting 
portion  of  the  peg.  As  the  patient  grows  in  height  beyond  the  peg, 
so  will  the  disease  be  outgrown." —  (Idem,  p.  28.) 

"  Gout  may  be  transferred  from  a  man  to  a  tree,  thus :  Pare  the 
nails  of  the  sufferer's  fingers,  and  clip  some  hair  from  his  legs.  Bore 
a  hole  in  an  oak,  stuff  the  nails  and  hair  in  the  hole,  stop  up  the  hole 
again,  and  smear  it  with  cow's  dung."  —  ("The  Golden  Bough," 
Frazer,  vol.  ii.  p.  153,  quoting  Grimm.     Bavaria.) 

A  carious  method  of  relieving  and  eradicating  all  kinds  of  colic  by 
"transplantation"  is  related  and  described  by  Schurig.  The  excre- 
ment voided  during  one  of  the  paroxysms  should  he  buried  in  an  un- 
frequented spot.  The  grass  growing  on  the  soil  where  the  ordure  had 
been  deposited  would  be  eaten  by  domestic  cattle,  which  would  acquire 
the  disease,  relieving  the  sufferer.  "  Excrementa  tempore  paroxysm! 
reddita  sepeliantur  in  locum  a  viatorum  frequentia  separatum.  Gra- 
men  quod  enascitur  super  terram  cui  stercora  commissa  fuerint,  bovi 
vel  agno  pabuli  loco  offertur,  quod  \ibi  comederit,  colica  transplanta- 
tur  ab  homine  in  brutum,  et  nunquam  ipsum  reaffliget."  (Schurig, 
"  Chylologia,"  p.  785.)     Other  people  took  the  patient's  excrement^ 


422  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

dried  it  iu  the  open  air,  mixed  it  with  sweet  wine,  and  gave  it  to  the 
sick  mau  to  driuk.  "  Sunt  qui  illud  idem  exceptum  in  acre  exsiccant, 
cum  vino  edulcorant  et  patienti  propiuant,"  —  (Idem,  p.  785.) 

Nurses  were  cautioued  not  to  let  the  excrement  of  the  babies  under 
their  care  touch  the  hot  coals  or  cinders  of  the  fire  ;  they  should  throw 
all  the  excx'ement  in  at  once,  or  not  at  all.  If  we  are  to  understand 
that  this  excrement  was  to  be  habitually  thrown  into  the  kitchen  fire,  a 
most  charming  idea  is  conveyed  of  the  Arcadian  simplicity  of  European 
life  several  centuries  back. 

"  Hoc  loco  monendse  quoque  sunt  nutrices  vel  alise  muliercula)  in- 
fantulis  administrantes  ne  infiintum  excrementibus  contegat,  aut  post 
niodum  omnia  simul  in  ignem  projicinnt.  Exinde  enim  plurima  symp- 
tomata  exoriri  solent."  —  (Schurig,  p.  995.) 

The  case  is  cited  of  a  physician  suffering  from  marasmus,  or  emacia- 
ciation.  "  He  took  an  egg  and  boiled  it  hard  in  his  own  urine  ;  he 
then  with  a  bodkin  perforated  the  shell  in  many  places  and  buried  it  in 
an  ant-hill,  where  it  was  to  be  kept  to  be  devoured  by  the  emmets ;  and 
as  they  wasted  the  egg  he  found  his  distemper  to  abate."  —  (Pettigrew, 
"Med.  Superstitions,"  p.  102.) 

"  Among  medical  men  ...  the  Galenist  of  much  repute,  of  whom 
Boyle  writes,  was  induced,  when  other  means  of  cure  failed,  to  boil  an 
egg  in  his  own  urine.  The  egg  was  afterwards  buried  in  an  ant-hill, 
and  as  the  egg  wasted  the  physician  found  his  distemper  go  and  hia 
strength  increase.  In  Staff'ordshire  a  correspondent  says  that  to  cure 
jaundice  a  bladder  is  often  filled  with  the  patient's  urine  and  placed 
near  the  fire  ;  as  the  water  dries  up  the  jaundice  goes,  and,  were  it 
necessary,  other  instances  could  be  given  of  this  superstition."  — 
(Black,  "  Folk-Medicine,"  p.  56.) 

The  following  "sympathetic"  cure  is  from  Steller's  "Kamtchatka" 
(pp.  362  and  367)  :  When  a  man  is  suffering  from  incontinence  of 
urine,  a  wreath  is  made  of  the  soft  herb  "  eheu ;  "  in  the  centre  of  this 
some  fish-spawn  is  placed,  and  then  the  suff'erer  makes  his  water  upon 
it.  —  (Translated  by  Mr.  Bunnemeyer.) 

Ordure  alone  or  mixed  with  urine,  made  into  a  sausage  by  being  put 
into  a  hog's  bladder,  and  hung  up  in  the  chimney,  was  of  "  magical 
use  "  in  the  treatment  of  yellow  jaundice.  Christian  Franz  PauUini's 
own  son  was  cured  by  mixing  his  own  ordure  with  asses*  urine  in  this 
manner.  The  following  are  some  of  the  extracts  from  Schurig  referred 
to  in  this  paragraph  :  "  Ab  Incantatione  introductis  doloribus  externe 
impositum  sulphur  hoc  occidentale  magni  usus  esse  dicitur.  .  .  .  Alii 


CURES   BY   TRANSPLANTATION.  423 

adJunt  allium,  atque  elapsis  post  impositionem  viginti  quatuor  horia 
fuino  culinari  hsec  committunt.  .  .  .  Contra  ejusmodi  dolores  a  vene- 
ficio  alliis  placent  cataplasmata  ex  stercore  maleficiati  ia  vesicaua 
porcinam  injecto  et  in  Caminum  ad  suffumigandum  suspenso.  ,  .  . 
In  veneficio  arcendo  notum  est,  quod  stercus  humanum  sit  magni 
usus  si  scilicet  parti  ex  veneficio  dolenti  applicetur  stercus  huma- 
num vel  solum,  vel  cum  allio,  vel  asafcetida ;  sic  euim  est  ut 
alii  qui  perpetravit  veneficium  sapiant  omnia  stercus  humanum  et 
allium,  adeo  ut  necessum  habeant  solvere  veneficium.  .  .  .  Pro  icteri 
cura  magica  stercus,  vel  perse,  vel  cum  urina  mixtum,  vesicae  suillae 
indunt  atque  in  camino  suspendunt,  Christiauus  Franciscus  Paullini 
cujusdam  meminit,  qui  filii  sui  icterici  stercus  cum  urina  asini  commix- 
tum  modo  tractavit."  —  (Schurig,  "  Chylologia,"  pp.  787,  788.) 

When  cures  were  to  be  effected  by  the  method  called  by  some  au- 
thors "  insemination  "  each  disease  seemed  to  require  its  -special  plant. 
Thus  yellow  jaundice  required  swallow-wort  and  juniper  berries; 
dropsy,  absinthe  (worm-wood)  and  box-elder ;  pleurisy,  the  poppy  ; 
the  plague,  the  plant  known  as  scordium  (this  plant  smells  like  garlic), 
etc. —  (Frommann,  "  Tract,  de  Fascinat.,"  p.  1030.) 

The  following  problem  is  presented  for  solution  or  for  such  explana- 
tion as  competent  scholars  may  find  it  possible  to  give. 

We  know  that  every  disease  was  looked  upon  as  an  infliction  from 
some  angry  god  ;  on  the  other  hand,  we  know  also  that  for  each  disease 
there  was  some  god,  in  later  days  some  saint,  to  whom  the  afflicted 
might  appeal ;  we  know  also  that  certain  plants  were  sacred  to  certain 
divinities.  Therefore  the  question  to  be  answered  is,  Were  the  plants 
hereinbefore  specified  those  which  were  sacred  to  those  gods  who  had 
charge  of  those  diseases  respectively?  The  examination  to  be  com- 
plete should  include  all  that  may  now  survive  among  European  peas- 
antry of  the  worship  of  Roman,  Phoenician,  Celtic,  Teutonic,  or  even 
Egyptian  or  Etruscan,  deities. 

Grimm  recites  the  names  of  the  trees  employed  for  the  cure  of  dif- 
ferent diseases,  —  epilepsy,  peach-blossoms ;  ague,  elder-tree  ;  gout,  fir- 
tree  ;  ague,  willow  ;  gout,  young  pine-tree.  —  ("  Teut.  Mythology.") 

Why  was  Apollo  supposed  to  love  the  laurel  and  the  cornel  cherry, 
"  Pluto  the  cypress  and  the  maiden-hair,  —  a  moisture-loving  fern, 
which  we  may  take  for  granted  could  not  be  very  plentiful  in  his 
chosen  realm,  —  Luna  the  dittany,  Ceres  the  daflfodil,  Jupiter  the  oak, 
Minerva  the  olive,  Bacchus  the  vine,  and  Venus  the  myrtle-shade  1 " 


424  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

—  (Extract  from  an  article  entitled  "  Flowers  as  Emblems,"  in 
♦'  Standard,"  London,  copied  in  "  Sun,"  Xew  York,  May  12,  1889.) 

"A  sick  man's  perspiration  from  tiie  brow  wiped  off  with  bread,  and 
given  to  a  dog,  will  cure  the  patient." —  (Sagen-Marchen,  "  Volksaber- 
glauben  aus  Schwaben,"  Freiburg,  1861,  p.  494.) 

As  a  certain"  cure  for  witchcraft  take  the  excrement  of  the  patient, 
put  it  in  a  pig's  bladder,  and  hang  it  up  in  the  chimney ;  or  let  him 
take  some  of  his  own  excrement,  inwardly,  dissolved  in  vinegar; 
or  apply  human  excrement  to  the  bewitched  part,  then  put  that  ex- 
crement in  a  pig's  bladder,  and  hang  it  up  in  the  chimney  to  smoke 
for  three  or  four  days.  —  (Paullini,  pp.  260,  261.) 

By  the  French,  urine  was  considered  a  certain  cure  for  fever.  Such 
an  amount  of  superstition  attached  to  the  panacea  that  the  prescrip- 
tion may  well  be  given  in  full  :  — 

"  Knead  a  small  loaf  with  urine  voided  in  the  worst  stage  of  his 
fever  by  a  person  having  the  quaternary  ague.  Bake  the  loaf,  let  it 
cool,  and  give  it  to  be  eaten  by  another  person.  Eepeat  the  same 
during  three  different  attacks,  and  the  fever  will  leave  the  patient  and 
go  to  the  person  who  has  eaten  tl>e  bread." 

Another  one  runs  in  these  terms  :  — 

"  Take  an  egg,  boil  it  hard,  and  break  off  the  shell.  Prick  the  egg 
in  different  places  with  a  needle,  steep  it  in  the  urine  of  a  person 
afflicted  with  fever,  and  then  give  it  to  a  man  if  the  patient  bo  a  man, 
to  a  woman  if  a  woman,  and  the  recipient  will  acquire  the  fever,  which 
will  abandon  the  patient."  ^ 

This  remedy  Thiers  traces  back  to  the  Romans,  quoting  from  Horace 
in  support  of  his  assertion. 

The  second  recipe  finds  its  parallel  in  the  "  Chinook  olives,"  described 
in  the  first  pages  of  this  work. 

The  fact  that  human  ordure  was  the  panacea  by  which  all  the  effects 
of  witchcraft  could  be  undone,  and  all  charms  and  incantations  frus- 
trated, can  easily  be  shown  from  the  citations  to  be  found  in  Schurig. 

1  Petrir  un  petit  pain  avec  I'urine  qu'une  personne  malade  de  la  fifevre  quarte 
aura  rendue  dans  le  fort  de  son  acces,  le  faire  cuire,  le  laisser  froidir,  le  donner  k 
raanfjer  Ji  un  .  .  .  et  faire  trois  fois  la  menie  chose  pendant  trois  accfes,  le  .  .  . 
prendra  la  fievre  quarte  et  elle  quittera  la  personne  malade. 

Faire  durc'r  un  CEuf,  le  peler,  le  piquer  de  divers  coups  d'aiguille,  le  tremper 
dans  I'urine  d'une  personne  qui  a  la  fifevre  .  .  .  puis  le  donner  k  un  .  .  .  si  le 
malade  est  un  male,  ou  k  une  .  .  .  si  le  malade  est  une  femelle  et  la  fievre  s'en 
ira.  —  (Thiers,  "  Traite  des  Superstitions,  Paris,  1745,  vol.  i.  lib.  v.  cap,  iv.  p.  386, 
copied  in  Picart,  "  Couturaes  et  Ceremonies,"  etc.,  Amsterdam,  1729,  vol.  x.  p.  80.) 


CURES  BY  TEA.NSPLANTATION.  425 

"  Occidental  sulphur,"  applied  externally  to  the  pains  occasioned  by 
incantations  was  said  to  be  very  efficacious.  Others  added  garlic,  and 
twenty-four  hours  after  exposed  the  mixture  to  the  smoke  of  the 
kitchen-fire.  Others  again  took  the  ordure  of  the  bewitched  person, 
made  sausage  of  it,  and  hung  it  up  to  be  smoked  in  tlie  kitchen-fire. 

Various  instances  are  given  of  the  efficacy  of  human  ordure  in  undo- 
ing the  work  of  witches;  it  was  to  be  applied  alone  or  mixed  with 
garlic  or  assafcetida. 

Take  a  liver,  cut  in  pieces,  and  secretly  place  in  the  urinal  of  the 
patient ;  if  the  patient  unconsciously  use  the  chamber  for  defecation 
he  will  recover  —  ("  Sagen-Miirchen,  Volksaberglauben,"  etc.,  Drs.  Bir- 
linger  and  Buck,  p.  481.) 

The  method  of  curing  fevers  by  imbedding  clippings  of  the  finger 
and  toe  nails  of  the  patient  in  wax  and  affixing  to  another  person's 
door-post,  is  mentioned  by  Pliny  (lib.  xxxviii.  c.  24). 

The  same  are  given,  with  the  others  already  noted,  by  Fromraann. 
—  ("Tractatus  de  Fascinatione,"  p.  1003  et  seq.) 

Etmuller  says  that  the  oak  was  the  tree  most  highly  commended ; 
to  secure  a  good  set  of  teeth,  one  of  the  milk  teeth  was  buried  in  an 
oak ;  to  restore  falling  hair,  some  of  the  patient's  hair ;  to  cure  gout, 
some  of  his  toe-nail  clippings,  etc.  —  (Etmuller,  vol.  i.  p.  127.) 

"  In  Donegal,  the  suffisrer  should  seek  a  straw  with  nine  knees,  and 
cut  the  knots  that  form  the  joints  of  every  one  of  them,  any  superflu- 
ous knots  being  thrown  away ;  then  bury  the  knot  in  a  midden  or 
dung-heap;  and  as  the  joints  rot,  so  will  the  warts."  —  ("Folk-Medi- 
cine," p.  57.) 

Grose  says,  "  To  cure  warts,  steal  a  piece  of  beef  from  a  butcher's 
shop  and  rub  your  warts  with  it ;  then  throw  it  down  the  necessary- 
house,  or  bury  it;  and  as  the  beef  rots,  your  warts  will  decay."  — 
(Brand,  "Pop.  Ant."  vol.  iii.  p.  276,  art.  "Physical  Charms.") 

The  American  cures  for  warts  in  which  the  sufferer  is  enjoined  to 
steal  a  piece  of  meat,  etc.,  are  a  perfect  "survival"  from  the  above, 
while  the  "cure"  given  by  Mark  Twain,  in  his  story  of  "Huckleberry 

Finn"  — 

"Barley-corn,  barley-corn,  Indian  meal  shorts, 
Spunk  water,  spunk  water,  swallow  these  warts," 

may  be  classed  as  a  "distorted  survival." 

"  A  piece  of  meat  is  cut  from  one  of  the  arms  of  the  menaced  man 
(i.  e.  menaced  with  death),  and  a  lock  of  hair  from  the  opposite  side  of 
his   head,  and  cast  into  the  fire;   and  he  is  rubbed  with  artemisia, 


426  SCATALOGIC  EITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

dipped  in  water,  as  this  plant  is  the  food  of  the  ghosts.  These  rites, 
omitting  the  cutting  of  tlie  flesh  and  hair,  must  be  performed  on  four 
successive  nights."  —  ("  Death  and  Funeral  Customs  among  the  Oma- 
has,"  Francis  La  Flesche,  iu  "Jour,  of  Amer.  Folk-Lore,"  Jan.  March, 
1889,  p.  4.) 

**  Tlie  Orkney  islanders  will  wash  a  sick  person  and  then  throw  the 
water  down  a  gateway  in  the  belief  that  the  sickness  will  leave  the 
patient  and  be  transferred  to  the  first  person  who  passes  through 
the  gate." —  ("The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  ii.  p.  153.) 

These  cures  by  "transplantation"  are  still  to  be  found  in  full  vigor 
among  the  descendants  of  the  immigrants  from  Westphalia  and  the 
Palatinate  wlio  made  their  homes  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 

For  the  cure  of  jaundice:  "  Hollow  out  a  carrot,  fill  it  with  the  pa- 
tient's urine,  and  hang  it,  by  means  of  a  string,  in  the  fireplace.  As 
the  urine  is  evaporated,  and  the  carrot  becomes  shrivelled,  the  disease 
will  leave  the  patient.  In  this  there  is  an  evident  belief  in  the  connec- 
tion between  the  properties  and  color  of  the  carrot  and  the  yellow  skin 
of  the  patient  having  jaundice.  To  this  class  may  belong  the  belief 
respecting  the  use  of  a  band  of  red  flannel  for  diphtheria,  and  yellow  or 
amber  beads  for  purulent  discharges  from  the  ears." —  ("Folk-Med.  of 
the  Penn'a  Germans,"  Hofi'man,  Amer.  Phil.  Society,  1889.) 

Reference  should  be  had  to  Black's  notes  upon  a  similar  custom  in 
Staffordshire,  where,  instead  of  a  caiTot,  a  bladder  is  iilled."  —  ("  Folk- 
Medicine,"  p.  56.) 

"  Convulsions  in  a  child  are  sometimes  due  to  the  influence  of  the 
fairies."  Mooney  describes  a  cure  eff'ected  by  a  mother  who  "  picked 
from  the  roadside  ten  small  white  pebbles,  known  as  'fairy  stones.* 
On  reaching  home,  she  put  nine  of  these  stones  into  a  vessel  of  urine 
and  threw  the  tenth  into  the  fire.  She  also  put  into  the  vessel  some 
chicken-dung  and  three  sprigs  of  a  plant  (probably  ivy  or  garlic)  which 
grew  on  the  roof  above  the  door.  She  then  strii)ped  the  child  and 
threw  into  the  fire  the  shirt  and  other  garments  which  were  worn  next 
the  skin.  The  child  was  then  washed  from  head  to  foot,  wrapped  in  a 
blanket  and  put  to  bed.  There  were  nine  hens  and  a  rooster  on  the 
rafters  above  the  door.  In  a  short  time  the  child  had  a  violent  fit  and 
the  nine  hens  dropped  dead  upon  the  floor.  Tlie  rooster  dropped  down 
from  his  perch,  crew  three  times,  and  then  flew  again  to  the  rafters. 
If  the  woman  had  put  the  tenth  stone  with  the  others,  he  would  have 
dropped  dead  witli  the  hens.  The  child  was  cured."  —  ("  Med.  Mythol. 
of  Ireland,"  James  Mooney,  «'Amer.  Phil.  Soc."  1887.) 


CURES   BY  TRANSPLANTATION.  427 

Mooney  remarks  upon  the  above  :  "  This  single  instance  combines 
iu  itself  a  number  of  important  features  in  connection  with  the  popu- 
lar mythology ;  the  dung,  the  urine,  the  plant  above  the  door,  the 
chickens,  the  fire  and  the  garment  worn  next  the  skin,  and  introduces 
also  a  new  element  into  the  popular  theory  of  disease,  viz. :  the  idea 
of  vicarious  cure,  or  rather  of  vicarious  sacrifice.  This  belief,  which 
is  general,  is  that  no  one  can  be  cured  of  a  dangerous  illness,  unless,  as 
the  people  express  it,  '  something  is  left  in  its  place '  to  sufler  the  sick- 
ness and  death."  —  (Idem.) 

In  the  case  of  a  "  changeling  child,"  the  mother  was  ordered  to  leave 
it  "on  the  dung-hill  to  cry  and  not  to  pity  it."  —  (Hazlitt's  edition  of 
"Fairy  Tales,"  London,  1875,  p.  372.) 

"At  Sucla-Tirtha,  in  India,  an  earthen  pot  containing  the  accumu- 
lated sins  of  the  people,  is  annually  set  adrift  on  the  river." —  ("The 
Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  p.  192,  vol.  ii.) 

See  notes  under  "  Catamenial  Fluid,"  from  EtmuUer. 


428  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 


XLVI. 

THE  USE  OF  THE  LINGAM  IN   INDIA. 

TN  connection  with  the  Lingamic  ritual  in  India,  there  remain  usages 
-*-  now  degenerated  into  symbolism,  which  cannot  be  interpreted  in 
any  other  sense  than  as  "  survivals "  of  very  obscene  and  disgusting 
practices  in  the  primitive  life  of  that  region.  In  describing  the  sacri- 
fice called  Poojah,  Maurice  says  :  '*  The  Abichegam  makes  a  part  of 
the  Poojah.  This  ceremony  consists  in  pouring  milk  upon  the  lingara. 
This  liquor  is  afterwards  kept  with  great  care,  and  some  drops  are 
given  to  dying  people  that  they  may  merit  the  delights  of  the  Calaison." 
The  "salagram  of  the  Vishnuites  is  the  same  as  the  lingam  of  the 
Seevites."  "  Happy  are  those  favored  devotees  who  can  quaff  the 
sanctified  water  in  which  either  has  been  bathed." — ("  Ind.  Ant." 
vol.  V.  pp.  146,  179.) 

Dulaure  describes  the  rites  of  the  Cochi-couris,  in  which  the  sacred 
water  of  the  Ganges  is  first  poured  upon  the  lingara ;  it  is  then  pre- 
served to  be  dealt  out  in  drops  to  the  faithful ;  it  is  specially  service- 
able in  soothing  the  last  hours  of  the  dying.  The  Lingam  is  the 
Phallic  symbol.  The  water  or  milk  sanctified  by  it  may  represent  a 
former  employment  of  urine,  such,  as  will  be  shown,  as  prevailed  all  over 
Europe.  The  use  of  lingam  water  is  perhaps  analogous  to  that  of 
mistletoe  water,  previously  noted. 

In  speaking  of  the  "mysteries"  of  the  goddess  "Cotitta,"  a  popular 
Venus  of  the  isle  of  Chios,  Dulaure  says:  "  Les  initios,  qui  se  livrai- 
ent  a  tons  les  exces  de  la  d^bauche,  y  employaient  le  Phallus  d'une 
mani^re  particuliere ;  ils  etaient  de  verre  et  servaient  de  vases  a  boire." 
He  quotes  Juvenal,  satire  2,  verse  95,  as  saying  of  the  extreme  license 
of  these  mysteries:  "vitreo  bibit  ille  Priapo." — ("  Des  Divinites 
Generatrices.") 

Does  not  the  preceding  paragraph,  in  the  lines  from  the  Roman 
satirist,  conceal  under  a  very  gauzy  veil,  a  dirty  proceeding  akin  to  the 
urine  dance  of  the  Zunis  1 


THE   USE   OF  THE  LINGAM   IN   INDIA.  429 

Frommann  quotes  the  above  lines  from  Juvenal,  without  attempting 
to  enter  upon  an  explanation  of  them.  (See  "  Tract,  de  Fascinatione," 
p.  333.)  Rev.  Lewis  Evans,  a  Fellow  of  Wadham's  College,  Oxford, 
translates  them  as  follows  in  his  edition  of  "Juvenal :  "  — 

"Another  drains  a  Priapus-shaped  glass." 

But  Gifford  renders  it :  — 

"  Swill  from  huge  glasses  of  immodest  mould." 

Montfaucon  says  that  in  the  Festivals  of  Priapus  "  celebrated  by  the 
women  .  .  .  the  priestess  sprinkles  Priapus  with  water.  —  (I'Anti- 
quit^  expliqu^e,"  lib.  i.  part  2,  c.  xxviii. ;  in  the  first  volume  is  a  repre- 
sentation of  a  phallic  vase  with  human  ears  attached.) 

**  Verser  quelques  gouttes  sur  la  tete  dans  la  bouohe  desagonisants." 
—  ("Dulaure,  Des.  Div.  Generat.,"  Paris,  1825,  pp.  105,  106,  111.) 

"  In  a  manuscript  of  the  church  of  Beauvais  about  the  year  500,  it  is 
said  that  the  chanter  and  canons  shall  stand  before  the  gates  of  the 
church,  which  were  shut,  holding  each  of  them  urns  full  of  wine  with 
glass  cups,  of  whom  one  canon  shall  begin  the  Kalends  of  January."  — 
(Fosbroke,  "British  Monachism,"  p.  81.) 

In  out  of  the  way  nooks  and  comers  in  Europe,  intelligent  observ- 
ers may  still  stumble  upon  traces  of  the  religious  observances  alluded 
to  in  Juvenal ;  Mr.  Macaulay,  of  Philadelphia,  Penn'a,  who  lived  for  a 
time  near  Monaco,  in  the  Riviera,  imparts  the  infoi'matiou  that,  in 
that  section  of  Italy  he  had  personally  noticed  such  a  peculiar  custom ; 
i.  e.  that  of  assembling  each  family  on  Christmas  eve,  in  a  semicircle, 
round  the  fire  ;  the  youngest  boy  urinated  on  the  blazing  log  ;  then  the 
father  took  a  glass  goblet,  filled  with  white  wine,  and  sprinkled  the 
log  with  an  olive  branch ;  finally,  all  sipped  from  the  goblet,  the  con- 
tents of  which  ^Ir.  Macaulay  said  he  had  been  told  were  undoubtedly 
symbolical  of  urine. 

Among  people  farther  to  the  north,  the  same  worship  of  fire  by  offer- 
ing food  and  drinking  a  libation  still  obtains  without  any  offensive 
features. 

In  Sweden  and  Norway  "  early  in  the  morning,  the  good  wife  has 
been  up,  making  her  fire  and  baking ;  she  now  assembles  her  servants 
in  a  half-circle  before  the  oven  door,  they  all  bend  the  knee,  take  one 
bit  of  cake,  and  drink  the  fire's  health ;  what  is  left  of  cake  or  drink  is 
cast  into  the  flame."  —  (Grimm,  "Teut.  Mythol."  vol.  ii.  p.  629.) 

"  Our  Germau  sageu  and  marchen  have  retained  the  feature  of  kneel- 


430  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

ing  before  the  oven  and  praying  to  it.  .  .  .  The  unfortunate,  the  per- 
secuted, resort  to  the  oven  and  bewail  their  woe,  they  reveal  to  it  some 
secret  which  they  dare  not  confess  to  the  world."  —  (Idem,  p.  629.) 

"  A  leur  Coleda,  les  Serbes  font  bruler  une  buche  de  chene,  I'arrosent 
de  vin,  la  frappent  en  faisant  voler  les  etincelles,  et  crient :  'Autant 
d'etincelles,  autant  de  ch^vres  et  de  brebis.'"  —  ("Les  Primitifs," 
Recliis,  p.  111.) 

The  resemblance  to  the  customs  of  the  East  Indies  was,  in  places, 
even  closer  than  as  above  indicated. 

Inman  tells  of  sterile  women  who  drank  "prinpic  wine,"  i.  e.  wine 
poured  upon  an  upright  conical  stone  representing  the  lingara,  and  then 
collected  and  allowed  to  turn  sour.  — (Inman,  "Ancient  Faiths,"  etc., 
vol.  i.  p.  305,  article  "  Asher.") 

The  same  statement  is  to  be  found  in  Hargrave  Jennings'  work, 
"  Phallicisra,"  London,  1884,  p.  256,  but  it  seems  to  be  repeated  from 
Inman  and  Dulaure.  Campbell  reports  that  "among  the  principal 
relics  of  the  Church  at  Embrun  was  the  statue  of  Saint  Foutin.  The 
worshippers  of  this  idol  poured  libations  of  wine  upon  its  extremity, 
which  was  reddened  by  the  practice.  This  wine  was  caught  in  a  jar 
and  allowed  to  turn  sour.  It  was  then  called  '  holy  vinegar,'  and  was 
used  by  the  women  as  a  lotion  to  anoint  the  yoni."  —  ("  Phallic  Wor- 
ship," Robert  Allen  Campbell,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1888,  p.  197.) 

Among  the  Apache  Indians  of  Arizona,  the  Zunis,  Moquis,  and  Pue- 
blos, the  author  has  seen  large  arrow  or  spear  shaped  pieces  of  flint 
which  had  been  obtained  under  peculiar  circumstances,  were  regarded 
as  possessed  of  great  virtues,  and  were  worn  round  the  necks  by  the 
women,  generally  by  those  who  professed  "  medicine  "  powers.  Frag- 
ments of  these  flints  were  gi-ound  to  fine  powder,  and  administered  to 
women  while  pregnant,  to  ensure  safe  delivery ;  all  that  was  learned  of 
these  stones  will  be  presented  in  another  work ;  the  veneration  paid 
them  seems  to  be  closely  associated  with  the  worship  of  lightning. 
Vallencey,  in  his  "Collectanea  de  Rebus  Hibernicis,"  No.  xiii.  17, 
says :  "  In  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  a  large  chrystal,  of  a  figure 
somewhat  oval,  was  kept  by  the  priests  to  work  charms  by ;  water 
poured  upon  it  at  this  day  is  given  to  cattle  against  diseases ;  these 
stones  are  now  preserved  by  the  oldest  and  most  superstitious  in  the 
country."—  (Brand,  "Pop.  Antiq."  vol.  iii.  p.  60,  art.  "Sorcerer.") 


PHALLIC   SUPERSTITIONS   IN   EUROPE.  431 


XLVII. 

PHALLIC  SUPERSTITI0:J^S  in    FRANCE  AND  OTHER 
PARTS  OF  EUROPE. 

A  MONO  the  peasantry  of  Ireland  there  are  in  use  certain  pre- 
"^^  historic  arrow-heads,  believed  by  them  to  be  fairy  darts. 
"  When  an  illness  is  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  influence  of  the  fairies, 
.  .  .  this  'fairy  dart'  ...  is  put  into  a  tumbler  and  covered  with 
water,  which  the  patient  then  drinks,  and  if  the  foiries  are  responsible 
for  his  sickness,  he  at  once  recovers."  —  ("  Medical  Mythology  of  Ire- 
land," Mooney,  Amer.  Phil.  Soc,  1887.) 

And  in  like  manner,  —  as  has  already  been  shown  of  the  sacred 
character  attaching,  among  the  people  of  the  far  East,  to  water,  wine, 
or  milk  which  had  been  poured  over  the  lingam,  —  the  women  of 
France  solaced  themselves  with  the  hope  that  children  would  come  to 
those  who  drank  an  infusion  containing  scrapings  from  the  phalli, 
existing  until  the  outbreak  of  the  French  revolution,  at  Puy  en  Velay, 
in  the  church  of  Saint  Foutin,  in  the  shrine  of  Saint  Guerlichon,  near 
Bruges,  in  the  shrine  of  GuignoUes,  near  Brest;  and  in  that  of  an 
ancient  statue  of  Priapus,  at  Antwerp.^ 

1  See  Dulaure's  "Des  Divinites  Generatrices,"  Taris,  18C5,  pp.  271,  277,278, 
280,  283.  He  says  that  this  vestige  of  phallic  worship  was  discernihle  in  France 
"a  une  epoque  tres-rapprochee  de  la  notre,"  and  that  women  "  raclaient  line 
euorme  branche  phallique  que  presentait  la  statue  du  saint  ;  elles  croyaient  que  la 
raclure  enfusee  dans  un  boisson,  les  rendrait  fecondes." 

But  Davenport,  who  has  probed  deeply  into  the  question  of  phallic  worship, 
contends  that  such  vestiges  existed  in  some  of  the  communities  of  France,  Sicily, 
and  Belgium,  not  only  down  to  the  Reformation,  but  even  to  the  opening  decades 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  —  (See  Davenport,  "  On  the  Powers  of  Reproduction," 
London  (privately  printed),  1869,  pp.  10-20.) 

E.  Payne  Knight  speaks  of  this  same  instance  of  survival  at  Isemia,  in  Sicily. 
It  was  known  at  that  place  as  late  as  1805. 

See  also  "The  Masculine  Cross  and  ancient  Sex  T\'oi-ship,"  Sha  Rocco,  New 
York,  1874,  etc. 

Dulaure,  however,  admits  that  he  knew  of  no  example  in  antiquity  of  scraping 
the  phallus  and  drinking  an  infusion  of  the  powder.  "  L'usage  de  racier  le  phallus 
et  d'avaler  de  cette  raclure  avec  de  I'eau,  usage  dont  je  ne  connais  point  d'exemple 
dans  I'antiquite." 

Dulaure,  as  above,  p.  300. 


432  8CATAL0GIC   RITKS   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 


XLVIII. 

BURLESQUE  SURVIVALS. 

A  NEW  task  now  presents  itself,  the  examination  into  burlesque 
-^^-*-  survivals  of  rites  and  usages  no  longer  countenanced  as  matters 
of  religious  importance. 

Religion  is  not  content  with  being  tenacious  of  its  ceremonial ;  it 
often  goes  so  far  as  to  sanctify  reversions  to  usages  and  modes  of 
thought  which  have  passed  out  of  the  recollection  of  the  people ;  in 
doing  this,  it  is  frequently  necessary  that  some  explanation  be  in- 
vented, as  the  hierophants  themselves  are  generally  ignorant  of  the 
true  reasons  for  their  conduct ;  but  more  ordinarily  mankind  accepts 
and  complies  with  ritualistic  precepts  without  inquiry,  and  even  with 
a  vague  belief  that  the  more  archaic  a  practice  may  be,  the  more 
efficacy  it  must  necessarily  have  in  securing  protection  and  good 
fortune. 

Tlie  Hindu  festival  of  Holi,  Huli,  or  Hulica,  familiar  to  most  read- 
ers, has  thus  been  outlined  by  a  recent  witness  as  celebrated  in  the 
provinces  near  Oudeypore.^  The  proceedings  are  characterized  as 
saturnalia,  attended  with  much  freedom  and  excessive  drunkenness  : 

"  The  importance  of  the  study  of  popular  traditions,  though  recog- 
nized by  men  of  science,  is  not  yet  understood  by  the  general  public. 
It  is  evident,  however,  that  the  mental  tokens  which  belong  to  one 
intellectual  stock,  which  bear  the  stamp  of  successive  ages,  which  con- 
nect the  intelligence  of  our  day  with  all  periods  of  human  activity,  are 

'  See,  in  Ronsselet's  "India,"  London,  1876,  pp.  173,  343.  It  has  been  identi- 
fied as  our  April  Fool's  Day.  See  in  "Asiatic  Researches,"  Calcutta,  1790,  vol.  ii. 
p.  334  ;  also,  in  Moor's  "Hindu  Pantheon,"  London,  1810,  pp.  156,  157  ;  also,  the 
Encyclopredia  Britannica,  and  Appleton's  Encyclopaedia,  article  "April." 

On  the  Sunday  and  Monday  preceding  Lent  people  are  privileged  at  Lisbon 
to  play  the  fool ;    it  is  thought  very  jocose  to  pour  water  on  any  person  who 

passes,  or  throw  powder  in  his  face ;  but  to  do  both  is  the  perfection  of  wit 

(Southey,  quoted  in  Hone's  "Every- Day  Book,"  vol.  i.  p.  206,  London,  1825. 
See  Brand's  "Popular  Antiquities,"  London,  1849,  vol.  i.,  p.  131,  article  "April 
Fool's  Day.") 


BURI,KSQUK    SUKVIVAT-R.  433 

worthy  of  serious  consideration.  Much  of  this  time-honored  currency 
is  rude  and  shapeless,  it  may  be  ore  scarcely  marked  by  the  die  ;  but 
among  the  treasures  silver  and  gold  are  not  wanting.  An  American 
superstition  may  require  for  its  explanation  reference  to  Teutonic  my- 
thology, or  may  be  directly  associated  with  the  philosophy,  monu- 
ments, and  arts  of  Hellas.  ...  It  is,  however,  now  a  recognized 
principle  that  higher  forms  can  only  be  comprehended  by  the  help  of 
the  lower  forms  out  of  which  they  grew.  .  .  .  The  only  truly  scientific 
habit  of  mind  is  that  wide  and  generotas  spirit  of  modern  research 
which,  without  disdain  and  without  indifference,  embraces  all  aspects 
of  human  thought,  and  endeavors  in  all  to  find  a  whole."  —  (Prof  W. 
W.  Newell,  in  "  Jouraal  of  American  Folk-Lore,"  Jan.-March,  1889.) 

"  It  is  not  too  much  to  assert,  once  for  all,  that  meaningless  customs 
must  be  survivals ;  that  they  had  a  practical,  or  at  least  ceremonial 
intention  when  and  where  they  first  arose  ;  but  are  now  fallen  into 
absurdity  from  having  been  carried  on  in  a  new  state  of  society, 
where  their  original  sense  has  been  discarded.*'  —  ("  Primitive  Cul- 
ture," E.  B.  Tylor,  New  York,  1874,  vol.  i.  p.  85.) 

"  I  believe  that  no  custom  which  we  find  among  early  races  was 
initiated  without  some  very  good  reason  why,  though  those  who  prac- 
tise it  may  long  have  lost  it,  and  even  have  been  obliged  to  invent  a 
new  one,  utterly  different  from  the  original,  to  explain  the  rite  which 
they  ignorantly  practise."  —  (Personal  -letter  from  J.  "\V.  Kingsley, 
Esq.,  M.  D.,  Brome  Hall,  Scole,  England.) 

"  The  serious  business  of  ancient  society  may  be  seen  to  sink  into 
the  sport  of  later  generations,  and  its  serious  belief  to  linger  on  in 
nursery  folk-lore,  while  superseded  habits  of  old-world  life  may  be 
modified  into  new-world  forms,  still  powerful  for  good  and  evil."  — 
("Primitive  Culture,"  K  B.  Tylor,  London,  1871,  vol.  i.  p.  15.) 

And  again  :  "  Religion  holds  on,  with  the  tenacity  of  superstition, 
to  all  that  has  ever  been  practised."  —  ("  Custom  and  Myth,"  Andrew 
Lang,  New  York,  1885,  p.  241  ) 

A  brighter  light  will  be  thrown  upon  future  investigations  by  re- 
garding folk-lore  and  folk-usage,  especially  folk-medicine,  as  the  crj-s- 
talization  of  primordial  religious  thought  and  practice. 

"  It  can  hardly  be  too  often  repeated,  since  it  is  not  yet  generally 
recognized,  that,  in  spite  of  their  fragmentary  character,  the  popular 
superstitions  and  customs  of  the  peasantry  are  by  far  the  fullest  and 
most  trustworthy  evidence  we  possess  as  to  the  primitive  religion  of 
the  Aryans.     Indeed,  the  primitive  Aryan,  in  all   that  regards  his 


434  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

mental  fibre  and  texture,  is  not  extinct.  He  is  amongst  us  to  this 
day.  The  great  intellectual  and  moral  forces  which  have  revolution- 
ized the  educated  world,  have  scarcely  affected  the  peasant.  lu  his 
inmost  beliefs,  he  is  what  his  forefathers  were  in  the  days  when  forest 
trees  still  grew,  and  squirrels  played  on  the  ground  where  Rome  and 
London  now  stand. 

"  Hence  every  inquiry  into  the  primitive  religion  of  the  Aryans  should 
either  start  from  the  superstitious  beliefs  and  observances  of  the 
peasantry,  or  should  at  least  be  constantly  checked  and  controlled  by 
reference  to  them.  Compared  with  the  evidence  afforded  by  living 
tradition,  the  testimony  of  ancient  books  on  the  subject  of  ancient 
religion  is  worth  very  little.  For  literature  accelerates  the  advance  of 
thought  at  a  rate  which  leaves  the  slow  progress  of  opinion  by  word 
of  mouth  at  an  immeasurable  distance  behind.  Two  or  three  genera- 
tions of  literature  may  do  more  to  change  thought  than  two  or  three 
thousand  years  of  traditional  life.  But  the  mass  of  the  people,  who 
do  not  read  books,  remain  unaffected  by  the  mental  revolution  wrought 
by  literature ;  and  so  it  has  come  about  that  in  Europe,  at  the  present 
day,  the  superstitious  beliefs  and  practices  whicli.  have  been  handed 
down  by  word  of  mouth  are  generally  of  a  far  more  archaic  type 
than  the  religion  depicted  in  the  most  ancient  literature  of  the  Aryan 
race."  —  ("The  Golden.  Bough,"  James  G.  Frazer,  M.  A.,  London, 
1890,  Preface,  viii,  ix.) 

The  people  of  Eangoon,  Siam,  observe  a  peculiar  usage  at  the  time 
of  their  New  Year.  Every  man,  woman,  boy,  or  girl  is  armed  with  a 
"squirt-gun,"  with  which  all  people  on  the  street  are  drenched.^ 

Elliott,  apparently  quoting  from  Zagoskin  (a  Russian  explorei", 
temp.  1843),  says  that  the  Alaskans  have  "entertainments"  in  the 
"  kashga."  "  It  sometimes  happens,  on  these  occasions,  that  lovers 
of  fun  sprinkle  the  women  with  oil,  or  with  that  fluid  which  they  use 
in  place  of  soap,  squirted  from  small  bladders  concealed  about  their 
persons,  and  such  jokes  are  never  resented." —  ("Our  Arctic  Province," 
Henry  W.  Elliott,  New  York,  1887,  p.  392.) 

"  From  the  very  beginning  effigies  of  the  most  revolting  indecency  are 
set  up  in  the  gates  of  the  town  and  in  the  principal  thoroughfares. 

"  Troops  of  men  and  women,  wreathed  with  flowers  and  drunk  with 
bang,  crowd  the  streets,  carrying  sacks  full  of  a  bright  red  vegetable 
powder.     With  this  they  assail  the   passers-by,  covering  them  with 

1  The  authority  for  this  statement  will  be  found  in  "The  Press,"  of  Philadel- 
phia, Penn.,  copied  in  the  "  Evening  Star,"  of  Washington,  July  26,  1890. 


BURLESQUE  SURVIVALS.  435 

clouds  of  dust,  which  soon  dyes  their  clothes  a  startling  color.  Groups 
of  people  standing  at  the  windows  retaliate  with  the  same  projectile,  or 
squirt  with  ivooden  syringes  red  and  yellow  streams  of  water  into  tJie 
streets  below." 

The  Nautch  dances  reach  the  acme  of  voluptuousness,  and  the  ac- 
companying chants  are  filled  with  suggestiveness.  The  author  here 
quoted  says  that  Holica  was  the  Indian  Venus. 

An  eminent  authority  says  that  "  this  red  powder  {gulal)  is  a  sign  of 
a  bad  design  of  an  adulterous  character.  During  the  holi  holidays  the 
Maharaj  throws  gidcil  on  the  breasts  of  female  and  male  devotees,  and 
directs  the  current  of  some  water  of  a  j'ellow  color  from  a  syringe  upon 
the  breasts  of  females."  —  (Inman,  "  Ancient  Faiths  embodied  in 
Ancient  Names,"  p.  393.) 

This  "  yellow  water  "  may  be  a  survival  of  and  a  refinement  upon 
urine.  The  Apaches  and  Navajoes,  close  neighbors  of  the  Zufiis,  have 
had  until  very  recently  (and  may  still  celebrate)  the  dance  of  the 
Joshkau,  m  which  clowns  scatter  upon  the  spectators,  from  bladders 
wound  round  their  bodies,  water,  said  to  be  representative  of  urine. 

Among  the  Aztecs  there  was  a  festival  allowing  the  fullest  license  to 
clowns,  armed  with  bladders  filled  with  red  powder  or  fine  pieces  of 
maguey  paper  attached  by  strings  to  short  poles.  With  these  blad- 
ders all  persons  caught  in  the  streets,  especially  women  and  girls,  were 
mercilessly  buffeted.  —  (Sahagun,  vol.  ii.  in  Kingsborough's  "Mexican 
Antiquities,"  vol.  vi.  p.  33,  and  again  vol.  vii.  p.  83.) 

His  account  says  that  in  the  seventeenth  month,  which  was  called 
"  Tititl,"  and  corresponded  almost  to  our  winter  solstice,  the  Mexican 
year  being  divided  into  eighteen  months  of  twenty  days  each,  begin- 
ning with  our  February,  the  Aztec  populace  played  a  game  called 
"  nechichiquavilo." 

All  the  men  and  boys  who  wished  to  play  this  game  made  little  bags 
or  nets,  filled  with  the  pollen  of  the  rush,  called  "  espadana,"  or  with 
paper  cut  in  fine  pieces.  These  were  attached  to  cords  or  ribbons  half 
a  yard  long,  in  such  a  manner  that  a  blow  could  be  struck  with  them. 
Others  made  these  bags  like  gloves,  which  they  stuffed  as  above  stated, 
or  with  leaves  of  green  maize.  No  one  was  allowed,  under  penalty,  to 
put  into  these  bags  any  stones,  or  anything  else  which  could  hurt. 

The  boys  at  once  began  to  play  this  game,  in  the  way  of  a  sham- 
battle,  hitting  each  other  on  the  head,  or  wherever  else  they  could. 
As  the  fun  increased  the  more  mischievous  of  the  boys  began  to  beat 
the  young  maidens  passing  along  the  street.     At  times  three  or  four 

\ 


43 G  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

young  boys  would  attack  one  girl,  and  beat  her  so  hard  as  to  weary  her 
and  make  her  cry.  The  more  prudent  of  the  young  girls,  in  going  from 
point  to  point,  carried  a  club  with  which  to  defend  themselves.  Some 
of  the  boys  concealed  the  bag,  and  when  any  old  women  carelessly 
approached  they  would  suddenly  begin  to  beat  them,  crying  out, 
''  Chichiquatzinte  mantze  !  "  —  which  means,  "  Our  mother,  this  is 
the  bag  of  the  game  !  "  ^ 

The  following  is  Torquemada's  description  :  — 

"In  the  festival  in  honor  of  the  goddess  Yamatecuhtli,  or  "principal 
old  woman,"  in  the  seventeenth  month  of  the  Mexican  calendar,  all  the 
people  of  thecity  made  bags  after  the  manner  of  purses,  and  stuffed  them 
full  of  hay  and  straw  and  other  things,  which  would  have  no  weight 
and  do  no  harm,  and,  attaching  them  to  a  cord,  carried  them  hidden 
under  their  cloaks.  With  these  bags  they  buffeted  all  the  women  they 
met  on  the  street."^  —  (Torquemada,  "Monarchia  Indiana,"  lib.  x. 
cap.  29.) 

He  recognizes  the  similarltybetween  this  and  the  blind-man's-buff 
games  of  other  countries. 

^  Para  este  jnejro,  todos  los  homhres  y  mnchachos  que  querian  jugar  hacian  talo- 
guillas  6  redecillos  llenos  de  flor  de  las  espadanaso  dealgunos  papcles  rotos  ;  atahaii 
estos  con  iinos  cordelejos  6  cintas  de  media  vara  de  largo,  de  tal  manera  que  pudiese 
hacer  golpe  ;  otros  hacian  a  manera  de  guantes  las  taleguillas  e  hinchabanlos  de  lo 
arriba  dicho  6  de  ojas  de  maiz  verde  ;  ponian  pena  a  todos  estos  que  nadie  echase 
piedra  6  cosa  que  pudiese  lastimar  dentro  las  taleguillos.  Comenzaban  luego  los 
muchaclios  a  jugar  este  juego  a  manera  de  escaramuza  y  dabanse  de  talegazos  en  la 
r^beza  y  per  donde  acertaban  y  de  poco  en  poco  se  iban  multiplicando  de  los  mu- 
chachos  y  los  mas  traviesos  daban  de  talegazos  a  las  muchaclias  que  pasaban  por  la 
calle  ;  a  las  veces,  se  juntaban  tres  6  quatro  para  dar  a  una  de  tal  manera  que  la 
fatigaban  y  la  bacian  llorar. 

Algunas  muchaclias  que  eran  mas  discretas,  si  habian  de  ir  a  alguna  parte,  en- 
tonces  llevaban  un  palo  u  otra  cosa  que  hiciese  temcr  para  defcnderse.  Algunos 
muchachos  escondian  la  talega  y  quando  pasaba  alguna  mujer  descuidadamente, 
dabanla  de  talegazos  y  quando  la  daban  un  golpe,  decian  Chichiquatzinto  mantze, 
que  quiere  decir,  "  Madre  Nuestra,  es  la  talega  de  este  juego."  Las  mugeres  anda- 
ban  muy  recatadas  quando  ivan  a  alguna  parte.  —  (Sahagun,  in  "  Kingsborough," 
vol.  vii.  p.  83.) 

At  the  feast  of  the  goddess  Tona  the  same  game  was  played.  —  (See  idem, 
vol.  vi.  p.  33. ) 

2  Hacia  toda  la  gente  de  el  Pueblo  unas  talegas,  a  manera  de  bolsas,  y  henchian- 
les  de  heno  y  paja  y  otras  cosas  que  no  haccn  golpe  ni  tienen  peso  y  colgavanlas  de 
un  cordel  y  traianlas  escondidas  debajo  de  los  mantos  que  les  Servian  de  capas. 
Con  estas  talegas  daban  de  Talegazos  a  todas  las  mugeres  que  encontraban  por  las 
calles. 


BURLESQUE   SURVIVALS.  437 

A  contributor  to  "Asiatic  Researches"  calls  this  powder  of  the 
Hull  festival  a  "  purple  powder,"  and  claims  that  the  idea  is  to  repre- 
sent the  return  of  spring,  which  the  Romans  call  "  purple."  ^ 

In  some  parts  of  North  America  the  l&t  of  April  is  observed  like 
Saint  Valentine's  Day,  with  this  difference,  that  the  boys  are  allowed 
to  chastise  the  girls,  if  they  think  fit,  either  with  words  or  blows. — 
(Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  i.  p.  141,  article  "April  Fool's 
Day.") 

A   FEW   REMARKS    UPON    THE    USE   OF   BLADDERS   IN    RELIGIOUS 
CEREMONIES. 

Whether  or  not  primitive  man,  excited  by  his  insatiate,  omnivorous 
appetite  for  gods,  under  the  impulses  of  which  he  deified  winds,  waters, 
trees,  and  stones,  and  looked  with  a  veneration  not  far  removed  from  de- 
votion itself,  upon  the  holy  graals,  chalices,  and  other  paraphernalia  of 
his  ritual,  should  have  associated  a  mysterious  power  with  the  bladders 
he  employed  to  hold  his  urine  and  ordure  is  a  question  which  no  one 
can  to-day  determine. 

For  our  own  cow-worshipping  Aryan  ancestry  bladders  were  a  natural 
means  of  transporting  liquids,  exactly  as  they  remain  among  the  Apaches 
and  other  Indian  tribes  of  America. 

Introduced  of  necessity  into  religious  ceremonial,  they  would,  with 
the  advance  of  years,  and  in  spite  of  the  improvement  which  might  be 
brought  about  in  the  domestic  comfort  of  the  people  at  large,  gain 
a  certain  "  medicine  "  value,  strictly  parallel  to  that  which  we  know 
has  been  gained  by  the  gourd-rattle,  which,  in  not  a  few  cases,  has 
been  consulted  as  an  oracle,  and  adored  as  a  god.* 

The  author  has  observed  a  number  of  instances  of  the  use  b}'  Sioux, 
Apache,  and  other  Indians,  of  bladders  tied  in  the  hair  as  an  "  orna- 
ment "  long  after  traders  had  placed  within  reach  glass  beads,  feathers, 
and  other  means  of  decoration.  The  Hottentots  kept  drinking-water 
in  "  the  intestines  of  animals."  —  (Thurnberg,  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi. 
pp.  38,  73,  141.) 

Of  the  Patagonians  we  are  informed  that  ''the  only  vessels  they 
use  for  carrying  water  are  bladders."  —  ("  Adventure  and  Beagle," 
vol.  i.  p.  93.) 

^  R.  Patterson,  in  "Asiatic  Researches,"  Calcutl-a,  1805,  vol.  viii.  p.  78. 

2  The  African  deity,  Obatala,  is  symbolized  by  a  whitened  gourd  provided  with 
a  cover,  which  is  placed  in  the  temples.  —  ("  Fetichism,"  Rev.  P.  Baudin,  New 
York,  1885,  p.  14.) 


438  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

AVe  are  informed  that  the  Shamans  of  Alaska  throw  into  the  sea 
inflated  bladders  and  watch  them  sink,  as  a  means  of  divination.  — 
("  Our  Arctic  Province,"  Elliott,  p.  393.) 

In  some  parts  of  rural  England  there  were  kept  up  even  to  our  own 
day  certain  feasts  or  ceremonies,  connected  with  the  ploughing  of  the 
land.  These  "  fool-plough "  days  varied  in  different  sections  from 
early  in  January  to  Shrove  Tuesday.  They  partook  of  the  nature 
of  a  frolic,  the  plough  being  driven  by  a  clown  armed  with  a  bladder, 
with  which  he  urged  his  team.  There  were  certain  peculiarities  con- 
nected with  this  custom  indicative  of  a  Pagan  origin.  The  clown 
was  attired  as  a  woman,  there  was  music,  the  plough  was  drawn 
three  times  round  a  fire,  the  blacksmith  received  "  sharping  com " 
for  sharpening  the  plough-irons,  and  the  whole  ended  with  feasting, 
in  which  the  cock  figured  as  one  of  the  articles  of  food.  All  this  sug- 
gested to  the  writer  in  Brand  a  relationship  with  the  "Compitalia"  of 
the  Romans  and  "  the  three  sacred  ploughings  "  of  the  Athenians  ;  also 
the  sacred  ceremonial  ploughing  of  the  Chinese.  —  (Brand,  "Popular 
Antiquities,"  vol.  i.  pp.  505  et  seq.,  article  "  Fool-Ploughs.") 

Bruce  describes  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Abyssinian  army  on 
an  expedition  against  the  Gallas  while  in  the  act  of  making  his  toilet. 
"  A  man  was  then  finishing  his  bead-dress  by  plaiting  it  with  some  of 
the  long  and  small  guts  of  an  ox,  which  I  did  not  perceive  had  ever 
been  cleaned."  —  (Bruce,  "  Nile,"  vol.  iv.  p.  212.) 

The  Gullas  of  Abyssinia,  upon  slaughtering  au  ox,  "  hang  the  en- 
trails round  their  necks,  or  interweave  them  with  their  hair."  — 
(Maltebrun,  "  Un.  Geography,"  Boston,  1847,  vol.  ii.  p.  47,  article 
"Abyssinia.") 

Bruce  describes  a  chief  of  the  Gallas  as  having  "  his  long  hair  plaited 
and  interwoven  with  the  bowels  of  oxen,  and  so  knotted  and  twisted  to- 
gether as  to  render  it  impossible  to  distinguish  the  hair  from  the  bowels. 
.  .  .  He  had  likewise  a  wreath  of  guts  hung  about  his  neck,  and  several 
rounds  of  the  same  about  his  middle."  —  ("  Nile,"  vol.  iv.  p.  560.) 

"  Their  favorite  ornament  is  composed  of  the  entrails  of  their  oxen, 
which,  without  superfluous  care  in  cleansing  them,  are  plaited  in  the 
hair  and  tied  as  girdles  round  the  waist."  —  ("  Encyc.  of  Geog.,"  Phila- 
delphia, 1855,  vol.  ii.  p.  588,  article  "  Abyssinia.") 

"  A  Norwegian  witch  has  boasted  of  sinking  a  ship  by  opening  a  bug 
in  which  she  had  shut  up  a  wind.  Ulysses  received  the  winds  in  a 
leather  bag  from  ^Eolus,  king  of  the  winds." —  ("  The  Golden  Bough," 
Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  27.) 


BURLESQUE   SURVIVALS.  439 

An  examination  of  the  examples  just  adduced,  as  well  as  of  those 
introduced  under  "  Cures  by  Transplantation,"  would  seem  to  show 
that  bladders  were  used  in  preference  to  material  just  as  available  and 
convenient,  and  that  when  a  substitution  was  made  it  was  always  by  a 
horn  or  a  glass,  clear  as  the  entrail  which  it  no  doubt  was  supposed  to 
resemble.  The  god  Crepitus,  as  we  have  shown,  was  symbolized  as  a 
swollen  paunch.  The  clowns  of  the  circuses  of  the  present  day  are 
armed  with  bladders  ;  but  why  no  antiquarian  has  yet  arisen  to  explain 
to  us. 

Brand  ("Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  i.  p.  261  ef  seq.,  article  "Fools") 
contains  no  information  on  this  pomt. 

The  use  of  the  bladder  is  to  be  noted  in  the  festivals  of  the  luuits. 
"  Apres  un  superbe  vacarme,  ils  suspendent  a  des  cordes  une  centaine 
des  vessies,  prises  a  des  animaux  tons  tues  a  coups  de  fleche."  — 
("Les  Primitifs,"  Reclus,  p.  110,  "  Les  luoits  Occideutaux.") 

The  explanation  given  by  Reclus  is  as  follows  :  "  Faut-il  expliquer 
que  les  vessies,  dchaufFees  par  la  flamme,  syrabolisent  les  souffles  du 
printemps  1  .  .  .  Qu'elles  symbolisent  I'esprit  de  vie  qui  entre  dans  les 
narines  V  —  (Idem.) 

It  may  be  enough  to  point  out  the  care  with  which  these  bladders 
must  be  selected  ;  not  every  bladder  will  do,  —  only  those  from  ani- 
mals killed  with  arrows. 


4-iO  SCATALOUIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 


XLIX. 

THE  WORSHIP   OF   COCKS   AND   HENS. 

/^NLY  such  matter  has  been  admitted  into  this  vohime  as  could 
^-^  prima  facie  be  considered  as  having  the  right  of  entry  ;  the  great- 
est care  has  been  taken  to  avoid  distortion  or  mutilation  of  authorities, 
and  much  has  been  excluded  that  might  have  been  presented  without 
running  a  risk  of  being  accused  of  unfairness. 

For  example,  as  old  an  authority  as  John  de  Laet  calls  attention  to 
the  great  prevalence  of  intoxication  and  debauchery  among  the  Indians 
of  Vextipa,  near  Mexico,  who  on  feast  days  had  the  ancient  custom  of 
becoming  drunk  as  beasts  and  committing  enormous  excesses.^  And  in 
like  manner  the  first  missionaries  in  Canada  complained  of  the  brutal 
oi'gies  of  the  natives,  in  which,  under  cover  of  darkness  and  the  cloak  of 
their  superstitions,  deeds  were  committed  which  the  pen  dared  not  de- 
scribe. Ample  reference  to  these  has  been  preserved  in  tlie  Jesuit  rela- 
tions, and  in  the  exact  and  interesting  American  treatises  dependent  so 
largely  upon  them.^  It  is  more  likely,  however,  that  the  Huron  and 
Algonkin  saturnalia  were,  in  general  terms,  scenes  of  promiscuous 
licentiousness. 

Only  two  authorities  can  be  cited.  Fathers  Le  Jeune  and  Sagard,  who 
instance  the  use  of  human  urine  or  ordure  under  spiritual  direction  ;  all 
others  leave  the  inference  that  the  bacchanalia  of  which  they  were  the 
reluctant  and  disgusted  observers  had  no  other  peculiarity  than  that  of 
unrestrained  sexual  intercourse. 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  better  example  of  the  tenacity  of  super- 
stition than  that  which  the  subjoined  extract  from  the  "Evening 
Star,"  of  Washington,  D.  C,  shows  as  existing  under  our  own  noses. 

1  John  de  Laet,  lib.  vi.  chap.  vii.  p.  202. 

2  See  Francis  Parkman's  "Jesuits  in  Nuith  America,"  the  works  of  John  Gil- 
mary  Shea,  and  Kipps  "Jesuit  Missions." 


THE  WORSHIP   OF   COCKS  AND   HENS.  441 


"A   CURIOUS    HUNGARIAN    SUPERSTITION. 

"A  correspondent  of  the  '  Philadelphia  Press,'  at  Pottsville,  Pa.,  tells 
of  a  curious  scene  he  witnessed  in  the  Hungarian  quarter.  A  number 
of  children  were  running  round  barefooted,  beating  tin  pans  and  boxes. 
In  the  midst  of  the  circle  they  were  describing  was  a  live  baby  buried 
up  to  the  neck  in  the  cold  ground  with  a  shawl  wound  round  its  throat 
for  protection.  It  was  learned  that  the  object  of  putting  the  baby  in 
this  peculiar  position  was  to  cure  it  of  a  skin  disease,  the  Huns  having 
the  same  faith  in  the  curative  properties  of  mother  earth  that  is  char- 
acteristic of  many  savage  tribes. 

"  While  the  child  was  thus  experiencing  the  medicinal  virtues  of  the 
earth  packed  round  its  body,  the  boys  beat  upon  the  pans  in  order  to 
frighten  away  the  evil  spirit  that  had  caused  the  disease." 

A  retrospective  glance  at  the  long  list  of  excrementitious  remedies 
collected  shows  that  both  the  disease  to  be  treated  and  the  remedy  by 
which  the  cure  was  to  be  effected  were  regarded  as  entirely  beyond  the 
domain  of  human  science.  Even  in  these  cases,  where  medicines,  pure 
and  simple,  as  we  should  now  recognize  them,  were  to  be  administered, 
there  was  a  complication  of  mysterious  mummery  and  ceremony,  the 
first  vestige  of  the  former  power  of  the  medicine-man.  Thus  felons 
could  be  treated  by  tracing  a  circle  round  them  with  a  dead  man's 
bone;  but  the  circle,  we  should  remember,  was  pre-eminently  the  line 
of  magic.^ 

Teeth  were  worn  as  amulets,  or  given  as  medicine  in  disease,  but  it 
was  essential  that  they  should  be  drawn  from  the  jaw  before  the  burial 
of  the  body ;  or  that  they  should  be  the  first  shed  by  a  child ;  that 
they  should  be  those  of  a  man  who  had  died  a  violent  death ;  or  that 
they  should  be  caught  before  they  touched  the  ground. 

If  they  were  not  to  be  used  immediately,  they  were  not  to  be  carried 
about,  but  were  to  be  buried  in  the  bark  of  a  tree. 

The  skull  of  a  man  was  a  remedy  for  the  diseases  of  men  only ;  that 
of  a  woman,  for  those  of  the  female  sex. 

There  were  combinations  of  numbers ;  no  medicine  was  to  be  admin- 

1  Pliny  contains  a  number  of  references  to  plants  to  which  mystic  properties 
were  attached,  which  could  only  be  dug  up  after  a  circle  had  been  traced  about 
them  with  a  sword,  prayers  recited  in  certain  postures,  etc.  —  (See  auioug  others, 
the  "  Mandragora,"  in  lib.  xxv.  c.  9i.) 


442  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS. 

istered  an  even  number  of  times ;  of  color  ^  based  upon  the  doctrine  of 
signatures  which  taught  among  other  things,  that  red  medicines  cured 
red  diseases,  and  saffron-tinted  ones,  those  of  the  jaimdice  type.  There 
were  iron-clad  formula}  for  gathering  medicinal  plants  in  which  the 
liour  of  the  day,  the  season  of  the  year,  the  age  of  the  moon,  the  posi- 
tion of  the  planets,  the  hand  to  be  used  in  plucking,  the  silence  to  be 
observed,  were  all  sedulously  inculcated  and  enjoined. 

There  were  charms  and  counter-charms,  such  as  the  Dea-soil  and 
the  Badershin  of  the  Druids,  in  which  the  same  magical  incantation, 
used  in  different  manners,  i.  e.  going  with  or  against  the  sun,  induced 
contrary  results. 

Traces  of  all  these  superstitious  ideas  are  to  be  looked  for  in  ^  close 

^  Copious  references  to  color-symbolism  will  be  found  in  the  works  of  Yon  Hel- 
mont  (i>.  1060) ;  Frazer,  "Totemism  ;"  J.  Owen  Dorsey ;  Dr.  W.  J.  Hoffman  ;  Black, 
"Folk-Medicine;"  Pettigrew,  "Medical  Superstitions;"  Andrew  Lang,  "Myth, 
Bitual,  and  Religion  ; "  Ganick  Mallery,  and  many  others ;  also  in  an  article  en- 
titled "Notes  on  the  Cosmogony  and  Theogony  of  the  Mojaves  of  the  Colorado 
River,"  published  in  the  "Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore,"  July-September,  1889, 
by  the  author  of  this  volume.  In  the  last  it  is  shown  that  the  idea  in  the  aborigi- 
nal mind  is  that  each  color  is  a  medicine,  and  that  the  rainbow,  being  a  conabina- 
tion  of  them  all,  is  a  panacea  ;  but  it  should  be  pointed  out  that,  even  in  the  days 
of  Dr.  Joseph  Lanzoni  (1694)  there  were  some  bold  medical  scholars  who  openly 
derided  such  notions  as  absurd  and  irrational. 

2  There  can  scarcely  be  a  doubt  that  pharmacy  was,  in  its  incipiency,  distinctly 
and  unequivocally  religious  in  character.  Grimm  is  full  of  the  matter.  He  tells  us 
that  "the  culling  and  fetching  of  herbs  had  to  be  done  at  particular  times  and  ac- 
cording to  long-established  forms.  .  .  .  Shortly  before  sunrise  when  the  day  is 
young.  .  .  .  The  viscum  was  gathered  at  new  moon.  Prima  Luna.  .  .  .  Some  had 
to  be  gathered  in  darkness,  others  plucked  by  the  light  of  the  moon,  generally  the 
new  moon  ;  others  by  a  person  tasting  ;  others  before  hearing  thunder  that  year. 
...  In  digging  up  an  herb,  the  Roman  custom  was  first  to  pour  mead  and  honey 
round  it,  as  if  to  propitiate  the  earth,  then  cut  round  the  root  with  a  swoid,  look- 
ing towards  the  east  (or  west),  and  the  moment  it  is  pulled  out,  to  lift  it  on  high 
without  letting  it  touch  the  ground.  ...  A  great  point  was  to  guard  against  cold 
iron  touching  the  root ;  hence  gold  or  red-hot  iron  was  used  in  cutting.  ...  In 
picking  or  pulling  up,  the  operator  used  the  left  hand  in  ceitain  cases  ;  he  had  to  do 
it  unbelted  and  unshod,  and  to  state  for  whom  and  for  what  purpose  it  was  done." 
Grimm  complains  of  the  scantiness  of  German  tradition  on  this  point  ;  yet,  he  finds 
that  the  "hyoscyamus,"'  or  henbane,  had  to  be  taken  from  the  ground  by  a  naked 
virgin,  using  the  little  finger  of  the  right  hand  and  standing  on  the  right  foot.  The 
French  formulae  for  such  purposes  require :  "  Quelques  uns  pour  .se  garantir  de 
maletices  ou  de  charmes  vont  cueillir  de  grand  matin,  k  jeun,  sans  avoir  lav^  leura 
mains,  sans  avoir  prie  Dieu,  sans  parler  k  personne,  et  sans  saluer  personne  en  leur 
chemin,  une  certaine  plante,  et  la  mettent  ensuite  sur  la  personne  maleficiee  ou 


THE  WORSHIP   OF   COCKS   AND   HENS.  443 

association  with  the  administration  of  excrementitious  remedial  agents, 
or  the  incantations  in  which  such  agents  appear. 

The  method  of  curing  incontinence  of  urine  by  micturating  into  a 
dof  kennel  probably  belongs  to  the  class  of  the  Druidic  Badershin  or 
AVidershin,  to  which  also  we  might  be  able  to  refer,  did  we  know  more 
about  it,  the  very  ancient  and  widely-disseminated  charact  or  charm, 
"  Diabolus  effodiat,"  etc. 

Thus,  in  making  use  of  lion-dung,  it  was  recommended  that  it  should 
be  that  of  a  lioness  which  had  brought  forth  young ;  and,  to  continue 
the  subject,  we  find  the  dung  of  black  cows,  the  dung  of  bulls  and 
cows  "  collected  in  the  month  of  May,"  "  water  of  cow-dung  collected 
in  May  and  June,"  etc.,  specially  enjoined  in  the  compounding  of 
pi'escriptions. 

Questions  of  the  deepest  interest  spring  up  like  weeds  as  we  re- 
examine our  text.     Of  these,  it  is  impossible  to  enumerate  all,  or  to 

eiisorcelee.  lis  portent  sur  eux  une  racine  de  chicoree,  qu'ils  ont  louche  a  genoux 
avec  de  I'or  et  de  I'ai'gent  le  jour  de  la  Nativite  de  Saint  Jean  Baptiste  un  peu  avaut 
le  soleil  leve,  et  qu'ils  ont  ensuite  arrachee  de  terre  avec  un  ferrenieut  et  beaucoup 
de  ceremonies,  apres  Tavoir  exorcisee  avec  I'epee  de  Judas  Machabee."  The  herb 
was  to  be  "neither  fretted  nor  squashed."  "The  Romans  had  a  strange  custom  of 
laying  a  sieve  in  the  road,  and  using  the  stalks  of  grass  that  grew  up  through  it 
for  medical  purposes."  (Grimm,  "Teut.  Mythol."  vol.  iii.  p.  119.T  et  seq.)  He 
fully  describes  the  ceremony  for  gathering  the  mandrake,  and  also  refers  to  the 
mistletoe,  but  adds  nothing  to  the  information  in  these  pages.  In  many  of  the 
prescriptions  given  by  Marcellus,  which  prescriptions  were  generally  of  a  magical 
character  (tempus,  A.D.  380),  there  are  injunctions  to  "observe  chastity."  —  (See 
"  Saxon  Leechdoras,"  lib.  i.  pp.  20,  29.) 

Again,  in  "Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  11,  we  learn  that  certain  medicinal 
plants  were  to  be  pulled  in  a  prescribed  manner,  the  name  of  the  jtatient  to  be  mur- 
mured at  the  same  moment  (quoting  from  Pliny,  lib.  xxi.,  xxii.  ;  again,  idem,  vol.  i. 
p.  14,  quoting  Pliny,  lib.  xii.  c.  16.) 

The  herb  mandrake  could  not  be  pulled  for  medicinal  purposes  except  by  a  pure 
man.  "  Its  virtue  is  so  mickle  and  famous  that  it  will  immediately  flee  from  an  un- 
clean man"  (idem,  vol.  i.  p.  245)  ;  again,  in  gathering  the  periwinkle,  "when  thou 
shalt  pluck  this  wort,  thou  shalt  be  free  from  every  uncleanness  "  (vol.  i.  p.  313). 

The  belief  in  regard  to  the  manner  of  pulling  the  mandrake  exists  among  the 
Turks  :  "The  pacha  told  me  of  a  curiosity  to  be  seen  at  Orfa.  .  .  .  This  curiosity 
consisted  of  two  small  figures,  made  of  a  peculiar  shrub,  partly  trained  and  partly 
twisted  and  partly  cut  into  the  form  of  a  roan  and  woman,  very  rudely  done,  and 
stained  over  to  give  them  the  appearance  of  having  gro\vn  in  that  shape.  ...  The 
inhabitants,  in  order  to  obtain  them,  tied  a  dog  by  a  string  to  each  figure,  and  then 
went  a  long  distance  off.  As  soon  as  the  dog  pulled  the  string,  and  drew  the  crea- 
ture out  of  the  ground,  the  noise  it  made  killed  the  dog."  — ("Assyrian  Discov- 
eries," George  Smith,  New  York,  1876,  p.  161.) 


444  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL    NATIONS. 

elaborate  these  remarks  into  a  disquisition  upon  religio-medical  botany  ; 
one  or  two^  however,  will  be  named.  Why  was  hyoscyamus  '(hen- 
bane) added  to  human  ordure  and  human  urine  for  the  frustration  of 
witchcraft]  "Was  it  because  this  plant  was  able  to  kill  the  chicken- 
god  sacred  to  so  many  European  peoples,  and  still  to  be  detected  upon 
the  spires  of  our  churches]  Was  the  chicken-god,  or  to  adopt  modern 
language,  was  the  god  of  whom  the  chicken  was  the  symbol,  friendly 
to  witches]  Being  one  of  the  principal  deities  of  a  supplanted  cultus, 
he  must  necessarily  have  been  the  power,  or  one  of  the  powers,  invoked 
by  the  witches  who  were  the  secret  adherents  of  the  old  oi-der  of  things 
spiritual. 

Again,  we  read  that  in  treating  the  bewitched,  their  limbs  were 
bathed  in  their  own  urine ;  to  which,  Frommann  says,  some  added 
asafoetida  and  others  garlic ;  but  assafcetida  was  called  "  merde  du  Dia- 
ble."  ("  Bib.  Scat."  p.  128.)  Was  this  fetid  gum  sacred  to  some  god, 
and  was  this  dung-god,  or  were  dung-gods  in  general,  the  powers  to  be 
invoked  for  rendering  nugatory  the  assaults  of  witches] 

In  our  quotations  we  have  shown  that,  in  the  opinion  of  old  authors 
nothing  equalled  human  ordure  for  baffling  witches,  and  Luther  has 
been  cited  as  expressing  the  belief  that  Satan  lied  in  dismay  from  hu- 
man flatulence. 

This  belief  has  been  transplanted  to  American  soil  with  the  German 
immigrants  settled  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 

Hoffman  speaks  of  a  "quack"  who  gave  a  credulous  dupe  "some 
charms  and  vile-smelling  herbs,  which  he  was  directed  to  burn  in  his 
house  so  as  to  drive  out  the  evil  and  remove  the  visitor  "  (i.  e.  the  spirit 
which  was  troubling  the  dupe). — ("Folk-Med.  of  the  Penn'a  Ger- 
mans," in  Trans.  Amer.  Phil.  Soc.  1889.) 

A  marked  peculiarity  of  the  list  of  animals  is  the  absence  of  those 
belonging  to  the  feuna  of  the  Xew  World  ;  there  is  no  reference  to  the 
excrement  of  the  turkey,  a  bird  unknown  to  the  nations  migrating  into 
Europe ;  but  there  are  to  be  found  the  names  of  nearly  all  the  birds 
and  beasts  known  to  Egyptian,  Greek,  Roman,  Celtic,  or  Teutonic 
races,  with,  however,  some  notable  exceptions;  there  is  no  mention  of 
the  excreta  of  the  bear,  the  swan,  the  wren,  the  parrot,  and  a  few 
others ;  the  complete  list  contained  in  this  work  is  repeated  for 
convenience  :  Hare,  camel,  goat,  wild  goat,  bull,  cow  and  calf,  wolf, 
hen,  chickens  and  cock,  boar,  wild  and  tame,  horse,  ass,  hippopotamus, 
lynx,  badger,  cuckoo,  swallow,  cat,  hawk,  mouse,  peacock,  pigeon,  do- 
mestic, wood-pigeon,  turtle  dove,  raven,  sparrow,  hedge-hog,  dog,  ring- 


TITE   WORSHIP   OF  COCKS   AND   HENS.  445 

dove,  mule,  weasel,  stork,  vulture,  crocodile,  starling,  eagle,  owl, 
elephant,  goose,  lizard,  rat,  duck,  kid,  chameleon,  quail,  kite,  rabbit, 
deer,  magpie,  crow,  ape,  hyena,  reindeer,  fox,  lion,  leopard. 

A  closer  examination  will  discover  that  the  ordure  and  urine  so 
prescribed  were  not  to  be  taken  indiscriminately  from  each  and  every 
animal,  but  that  each  was  assigned  as  a  remedy  appropriate  for  some 
special  physical  disturbance. 

Unfortunately,  modern  knowledge  of  the  medical  lore,  of  the  botan- 
ical, mineralogical,  and  chemical  attainments  and  hagiology  of  the 
ancients  is  not  so  thorough  that  we  can  venture,  with  the  positiveness 
warranted  by  the  suspicion  to  which  a  close  study  of  this  subject  gives 
rise,  to  assert  that  the  dung  or  urine  of  a  given  animal  was  most  suit- 
able to  palliate  the  pangs  of  the  disease  traceable  to  the  offended  dig- 
nity of  the  deity  of  which  the  particular  animal  was  the  representative 
or  symbol ;  but  it  is  a  foct  deserving  of  scrutiny  that  such  an  associa- 
tion is  unmistakably  indicated  in  a  number  of  cases. 

Pliny  says  that  goat-dung  could  be  applied  with  benefit  to  ulcers 
upon  the  generative  organs.  Was  not  the  goat  sacred  to  Pan  (i.  e., 
was  not  Pan  himself,  in  primitive  days,  the  deified  goat)  1  And  was 
not  Pan  the  god  to  whose  care  the  generative  organs  were,  under 
certain  circumstances,  confided  1 

When  the  feet  of  travellers  became  blistei'ed,  they  were  bathed 
with  the  urine  of  asses.  Was  the  ass,  the  burden-bearer,  at  any  time, 
or  in  any  place  under  the  domination  of  the  Romans,  regarded  as  the 
god  of  travellers  ]  Fosbroke  says,  "  An  ass  cajTied  the  utensils  and 
statues  in  the  sacrifices  of  Cybele  and  at  the  birth  of  Bacchus,  the  god 
newly  born,  but  he  was  only  sacrificed  to  Mars  or  Priapus."  — ("Encyc- 
lopaedia of  Antiquities,"  London,  1843,  vol.  ii.  p.  1009.) 

Pliny  also  prescribed  asses'  dung  for  uterine  troubles,  —  a  clear 
recognition  of  the  animal's  priapic  association. 

Hippopotamus-dung  was  given  as  a  remedy  for  fever  and  ague. 
This  monster  pachyderm  lives  in  swamps,  which  are  the  hotbeds  of 
malaria.  By  a  mistaken  analogy,  the  animal  would  have  been  cred- 
ited with  the  origin  of  the  disease  always  to  be  dreaded  by  intruders 
upon  its  lair. 

Without  desiring  to  enter  into  unnecessary  controversy  upon  the 
meaning  of  terms,  it  would  seem  to  be  perfectly  reasonable  to  assert 
that  the  majority  of  the  deities  of  paganism  had  been  zoomorphic 
before  man's  increasing  intellectuality  anthropomorphized  them,  and 
relegated  the  animal  first  to  the  subordinate  position  of  being  the 


I 


446  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

head  or  limbs  of  the  god,  and  then  to  the  still  more  ancillary  one  of 
being  simply  the  companion  or  symbol. 

To  consider  an  animal  a  god,  the  messenger,  attendant,  companion, 
or  representative  of  that  god ;  to  offer  it  up  as  the  most  delectable 
sacrifice  to  that  deity,  and  afterwards  restrict  the  o\)lation  to  a  part 
only  of  the  animal,  such  as  its  horns,  hoofs,  excreta,  —  are  all  links  iu 
the  same  psycho-religious  chain  of  reasoning. 

Mrs.  Fanny  D.  Bergen  shrewdly  observes,  "  There  seems  to  be  the 
best  of  reason  for  believing  that,  to  seek  the  origin  of  the  popular 
delusion  concerning  the  curative  properties  of  certain  animal  exci-eta, 
we  must  study  the  mytholog}'  of  our  long-ago  Aryan  ancestors." 
And  again  :  "  It  has  often  happened  that  substances,  as  well  as 
ceremonies,  which  originally  had  a  religious  signification,  in  later 
ages  degenerated  into  fancied  cures  for  diseases ;  so  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  the  employment  of  animal  excreta  as  remedies  among 
the  less  intelligent  classes  of  Europe,  in  both  earlier  and  later  times, 
as  well  as  in  our  own  newest  offshoot  from  the  Indo-European  stem, 
is  a  survival  of  early  Aryan  religious  observance."  —  ("  Animal  and 
Plant  Lore,"  iu  Popular  Science  Monthly,  New  York,  September, 
1888.) 

"Car,  dans  la  conception  vraiment  orthodoxe  du  sacrifice,  I'hostie, 
qu'elle  soit  homme,  femme  on  vierge,  agneau  ou  genisse,  coq  on 
colombe,  represente  la  divinite  elle-meme."  —  ("  Les  Primitifs,"  R^clus, 
p.  366.) 

"  Our  general  ignorance  of  the  popular  superstitions  and  customs  of 
the  ancients  has  already  been  confessed."  —  ("The  Golden  Bough," 
Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  363.) 

"  Frazer's  remarks  make  very  interesting  reading  in  support  of  the 
theory  of  Zootheistic  pharmacy.  He  not  onl}-  shows  that  the  animals 
enumerated  in  this  chapter  were  the  deities  in  charge  of  the  corn,  rye, 
and  other  cereals,  but  that  to  them  recourse  was  had  for  the  cure  of 
wounds,  hurts,  and  aches  happening  to  the  reapers  during  harvest. 
In  one  example  the  oat  which  is  introduced  into  the  field  is  made  to 
lick  the  laborer's  wounds;  in  another,  the  goat  —  which  is  decked 
with  ribbons,  and  afterwards  killed  with  much  ceremony,  and  eaten  at 
the  end  of  the  harvest  —  has  its  skin  converted  into  a  cloak,  which  the 
farmer  is  required  to  put  over  his  shoulders  during  the  coming  har- 
vest .  .  .  but  if  a  reaper  gets  pains  in  his  back,  the  farmer  gives  him 
the  goat-skin  to  wear." —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  16.) 

"  Amongst  the  animals  whose  forms  the  corn-spirit  is  supposed  to 


i 


THE  WORSHIP   OF   COCKS  ADD   HENS.  447 

take,  are  the  wolf,  dog,  hare,  cock,  goose,  cat,  goat,  cow  (ox),  bull,  pig, 
and  horse.  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  1.)  "Other  animal  forms  assumed  by 
the  corn-spirit  are  the  stag,  roe,  sheep,  bear,  ass,  fox,  mouse,  stork, 
swan,  and  kite."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  33.) 

Here  we  have  pretty  nearly  all  our  list  of  animals,  and  the  excre- 
ment of  every  one  here  mentioned  has  been  and  is  used  in  the  pre- 
scriptions of  folk-medicine,  excepting  the  excreta  of  the  bear  and 
swan. 

"Remembering  that  in  European  folk-lore  the  pig  is  a  common 
embodiment  of  the  corn-spirit,  we  may  now  ask.  May  not  the  pig, 
which  was  so  closely  associated  with  Demeter,  be  nothing  but  the  god- 
dess herself  in  animal  form  1  The  pig  was  sacred  to  her ;  in  art  she 
was  represented  carrying  or  accompanied  by  a  pig ;  and  the  pig  was 
regularly  sacrificed  in  her  mysteries,  the  reason  assigned  being  that 
the  pig  injures  the  corn,  and  is  therefore  an  enemy  of  the  goddess. 
But  after  an  animal  has  been  conceived  as  a  god,  or  a  god  as  an  ani- 
mal, it  sometimes  happens,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the  god  sloughs  off 
his  animal  form,  and  becomes  purely  anthropomorphic  ;  and  that  then 
the  animal,  which  at  first  had  been  slain  in  the  cliaracter  of  the  god, 
comes  to  be  the  victim  offered  to  the  god,  on  the  ground  of  its  hostility 
to  the  deity ;  in  short,  that  the  god  is  sacrificed  to  himself,  on  the 
ground  that  he  is  his  own  enemy.  ...  As  men  emerge  from  savagery, 
the  tendency  to  anthropomorphize  or  humanize  their  divinities  gains 
strength." —("  The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  360.) 

"  A  man  would  eat  freely  of  what  was  regarded  as  the  incarnation 
of  the  god  of  another  man,  but  the  incarnation  of  his  own  particular 
god  he  would  consider  it  death  to  injure  or  eat.  The  god  was  sup- 
posed to  avenge  the  insult  by  taking  up  his  abode  in  that  person's 
body,  and  causing  to  generate  there  the  very  thing  which  he  had 
eaten,  until   "t  produced  death." — ("Samoa,"  Turner,   p.  17.) 

"  The  ram  was  Ammon  himself.  On  the  monuments,  it  is  true, 
Ammon  appears  in  semi-human  form,  with  the  body  of  a  man,  and  the 
head  of  a  ram.  But  this  only  shows  that  he  was  in  the  usual  chrys- 
alis state  through  which  beast-gods  regularly  pass  before  they  emerge 
as  full-fledged  anthropomorphic  gods."  —  ("  The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer, 
vol.  ii.  p.  93.) 

"  Each  god  has  his  favorite  animal,  which  is  dedicated  to  him,  and 
serves  him  as  messenger." — ("Fetichism,"  Baudin,  p.  6S.) 

To  write  what  may  be  designated  the  hagiology  of  animal  life,  as 
known  to  the  ancients,  would  be  impossible.     Our  knowledge  is  too 


I 


448  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

fragmentary  and  too  confused,  from  the  inextricable  blending  of  the 
ideas  of  different  races  and  cults,  due  to  the  conquests  by  and  the 
subversion  of  the  Roman  empire,  when  victor  and  vanquished  recip- 
rocally exchanged  gods,  or  added  to  the  attributes  of  the  victorious 
deities  those  of  the  defeated. 

Religion,  in  the  last  years  of  the  Roman  empire,  was  a  kaleidoscopic 
jumble  of  the  tenets  and  rituals  of  many  races,  adopting  without 
caring  to  fully  understand,  whatever  struck  the  fancy  in  the  religion 
of  their  neighbors. 

Hence  it  is  impossible  to  demonstrate,  what  at  first  sight  seemed  to 
be  an  easy  task,  that  the  excreta  of  any  particular  animal  was  applied 
in  the  treatment  of  the  diseases  over  which  the  god  to  whom  the  ani- 
mal was  assigned  stood  guard.  We  are  not  absolutely  without  light 
upon  the  subject, — just  enough  to  discover  that  no  animal  was  insig- 
nificant enough  to  be  absolutely  without  adoration,  but  not  sufficiently 
clear  to  define  exactly  what  functions  each  quadruped  or  bird  god 
exercised. 

*'  The  representation  of  the  devil  in  the  shape  of  a  he-goat  goes  back 
to  a  remote  antiquity.  What  can  have  given  it  such  a  vigorous 
growth  among  heretics  and  witches  ?  The  witches  all  imagine  their 
master  as  a  black  he-goat,  to  whom,  at  festival-gatherings,  they  pay 
divine  honors;  conversely,  the  white  goat  atoned  for  and  defeated 
diabolic  influence.  ...  In  oaths  and  curses  of  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries,  the  he-goat  apes  the  true  god."  (Grimm,  "Teu- 
tonic Mythology,"  vol.  iii.  p.  395.)  "  The  devil,  in  retiring,  is  com- 
pelled unawares  to  let  his  foot  be  seen."  (Idem,  p.  994.)  "A  kobold 
(horse-sprite)  is  also  horse-footed.  ...  To  the  water-sprite,  the  whole 
or  half  of  a  horse's  figure  is  attributed.  .  .  .  That  is  why  horses  are 
sacrificed  to  rivers.  ...  A  British  demon,  Grant,  .  .  .  shewed  him- 
self as  a  foal.  .  .  .  Loki  changed  himself  into  a  mare.  .  .  .  The 
devil  appears  as  a  horse  in  the  stories  of  Zeno  and  Brother  Rausch. 
...  In  legends,  black  steeds  fetch  away  the  damned.  .  .  .  Next  to 
the  goat,  .  .  .  the  boar  is  a  devil's  animal."  (Idem,  pp.  994-996.) 
"A  soul-snatching  wolf,  the  devil  was  already  to  the  fathers."  (Idem, 
p.  996.)  "  A  canine  conformation  of  the  devil  is  supported  by  many 
authorities."  (Idem,  p.  996.)  "Foremost  among  birds  comes  the 
raven,  whose  form  the  devil  is  fond  of  assuming."  (Idem,  p.  997.) 
"  Within  the  last  few  centuries  only  I  find  the  vulture  put  for  the 
devil.  .  .  .  Still  more  frequently  the  cuckoo."  (Idem,  p.  997.) 
"Another  bird  whose  figure  is  assumed  is  the  cock."     (Idem,  p.  997), 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  COCKS  AND  HENS.  449 

"  When  stag-beetles  and  dung-beetles  are  taken  as  devils,  ...  it  gives 
assurance  of  a  heathen  point  of  view." —  (p.  999.) 

"Ill  Norway,  lambs  and  kids,  mostly  black  ones,  were  offered  to  the 
water-sprite." —  (Idem,  p.  1009.) 

"  It  is  a  natural  and  well-known  fact,  that  the  gods  of  one  nation 
become  the  devils  of  their  conquerors  or  successors."  —  (Black,  "  P'olk- 
Medicine,"  p.  12.) 

Gladiators  wore  camel's  dung  as  a  charm ;  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely 
that  to  the  Bedouin  nomad  the  "  ship  of  the  desert "  was  the  god  of 
fortitude. 

Fosbroke  says  that  it  was  the  "symbol  of  Arabia."  —  ("Antiquities," 
p.  1011.) 

The  sacredness  of  the  domestic  cattle  in  India  and  elsewhere  is  too 
well  known  to  require  remark  ;  so  is  that  of  the  crocodile  in  parts  of 
ancient  Egypt. 

The  hare  was  sacred  in  China,  and  is  as  sacred  to-day  to  certain 
tribes  of  American  Indians  as  it  was  to  the  Britons  when  Boadicea 
drew  one  from  her  bosom  to  consult  as  an  omen  before  joining  battle 
with  the  Roman  legions. 

The  rabbit  and  hare  figured  upon  ancient  Spanish  coins.  —  (Fos- 
broke, "Antiquities,"  vol.  ii.  p.  1022.) 

The  dung  of  hawks,  eagles,  and  vultures  was  administered  to  expel 
the  foetus  from  the  womb.  This  may  have  been  on  the  principle  of 
similia  similibus,  because  these  rapacious  birds  tore  the  young  of  other 
birds  from  their  nests  and  devoured  them.  However,  the  eagle  was 
worshipped  by  the  Romans,  Persians,  and  Babylonians,  upon  whose 
standards  it  perched.  —  (See  Fosbroke,  "Antiquities,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  1024, 
1025,  article  "Eagle.") 

"  It  was  the  common  symbol  of  Jupiter."  —  (Idem.) 

The  cat  was  a  moon-goddess  symbol  to  the  Egyptians,  as  well  as  to 
many  others.  —  (Idem,  p.  1011.) 

The  dog  was  sacred  to  Mercury  as  being  the  protector  of  shepherds. 
—  (Idem,  p.  1012.) 

The  dove,  as  well  known,  was  one  of  the  symbols  of  Venus. 

The  dove  was  also  worshipped  by  the  Assyrians.  —  (Idem,  p.  1024.) 

The  stork  "accompanies  filial  piety  .  .  .  upon  coins." — (Idem, 
vol.  i.  p.  215.) 

The  swallow  was  the  emblem  of  Isis.  —  (Idem,  p.  216.) 

The  ancient  Britons,  the  English  down  to  modern  days,  the  ancient 
Romans,  the  Hungarians,  the  Scotch,  and  many  other  nations,  drew 

29 


450  SCA.TALOGIC   RITES   OF   ALL  NATIONS. 

omens  from  the  crossing  of  a  man's  path  by  a  hare.  It  is  related  of 
Queen  Boadicea  that  before  joining  battle  with  the  Romans  she  drew 
from  her  bosom  a  hare,  which  she  released,  and  from  its  gambols  the 
priests  drew  the  augury  that  success  was  to  rest  with  her.  —  (See 
in  Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  pp.  201  et  seq.,  article 
"  Hare,  Wolf,  or  Sow.") 

Says  Plinius  :  "  There  must  be  something  in  the  general  persuasion 
that  after  seeing  a  hare  a  man  is  good-looking  for  nine  days."  — 
("  Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  14.) 

"  The  sun  was  represented  by  the  Persians  under  the  form  of  a  lion, 
which  they  called  Mithra ;  and  his  priests  were  called  lions,  and  the 
priestesses  hyenas."  —  (Fosbroke,  "Antiquities,"  vol.  ii.  p.  1020.) 

The  hyena,  according  to  Pliny,  was  an  especially  "magic"  animal. 
—  (Lib.  xxviii.) 

The  ape  was  "  worshipped  in  Egypt,  and  is  now  in  India."  —  (Fos- 
broke, "  Antiquities,"  vol.  ii.  p.  1008.) 

"  The  Greeks  of  Pythsecusa  worshipped  this  animal "  (monkey).  — 
(Idem,  p.  1020.) 

The  wolf.  "  The  Hebrews  venerated  this  animal."  —  (Idem, 
p.  1023.) 

The  wolf  was  "  consecrated  to  Apollo."  —  (Idem.) 

The  ancient  belief  all  over  Europe  was  that  it  was  lucky  to  have 
one's  path  crossed  by  a  wolf.  This  corresponds  to  the  idea  of  the 
Apache  in  regard  to  the  bear.  —  (See  Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities," 
vol.  iii.  p.  202,  article  "  Hare,  Wolf,  or  Sow.") 

The  Irish  veneration  for  the  wolf  is  well  known. 

The  lynx  "accompanied  Bacchus." — (Fosbroke,  "Antiquities," 
vol.  ii.  p.  1020.) 

The  pig  was  "  sacrificed  in  the  Eleusinian  mysteries."  —  (Idem, 
p.  1021.) 

The  cow,  among  the  Egyptians,  "  was  the  symbol  of  Venus."  — 
(Idem,  p.  1011.) 

The  elephant  was  "peculiar  to  the  cars  of  Bacchus."  —  (Idem, 
p.   1014.) 

The  goat.  "  Maimonides  says  .  .  .  that  the  Zabii  worshipped 
demons  under  the  figure  of  goats."  —  (Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  1015.) 

"  Steeds  were  consecrated  to  the  sun."  —  (Idem,  p.  1016.) 

The  crow,  "  anciently  the  symbol  of  Venus,"  was  "  superseded  by 
the  owl."— (Idem,  p.  1024.) 

The  cock  was  "  the  symbol  of  courage,  .  .  .  consecrated  to  Mars ; 


THE   WORSHIP   OF   COCKS   AND   HENS.  451 

also  to  Minerva,  to  Belloiia,  to  Mercury,  to  Esculapius."  —  (Idem, 
p.  1029.) 

A  flock  of  geese  was  kept  on  the  Capitoline  Hill  in  memory  of  the 
story  that  they  had  saved  Eome,  —  a  story  which  it  is  safe  to  say  had 
no  foundation  in  fact. 

The  raven  "  was  the  ensign  of  the  Danes."  —  (Idem,  p.  1030.) 

"So  revered  is  he  (the  fox)  that  no  place  in  a  Mantchurian  temple 
is  too  high  for  him."  —  (H.  E.  M.  James,  "  The  Long  White  Moun- 
tain," London,  1888,  p.  190.) 

"  The  serpent  also  is  greatly  feared  and  worshipped ;  so  is  the  hare." 
—  (Idem,  p.  192.) 

The  peacock  was  sacred  to  Juno,  whose  car  was  drawn  by  those 
birds.  Pliny  says  that  the  peacock  was  reported  to  swallow  its  own 
excrement,  as  if  envying  man  the  possession  of  a  treasure  so  precious. 
When  the  dung  of  the  peacock  was  administered  in  epilepsy,  vertigo, 
etc.,  the  medicine  was  to  be  taken  from  the  new  moon  to  the  full. 
Juno  was  a  lunar  deity. 

"It  was  an  ancient  and  wide-spread  custom  in  Europe  to  bestow 
names  of  honor  on  these  three"  (bear,  wolf,  and  fox).  —  (Grimm, 
"Teutonic  Mythology,"  vol.  ii.  p.  667.) 

"The  Gypsies  call  the  bear  'vieux,'  or  'grand-pere.' " — (Idem, 
foot-note,  quoting  Victor  Hugo's  "  Notre  Dame  de  Paris.") 

The  blood  of  a  hare  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  finest  remedies  for 
erysipelas  and  bloody  flux,  and  this  by  a  certain  '*  sympathetic  power." 
A  towel  dipped  in  hare's  blood  and  allowed  to  dry  was  kept  to  be 
touched  to  an  epileptic  patient.  —  (See  Von  Helmont,  "  Orotrika," 
English  translation,  London,  1662,  pp.  114,  475.) 

The  Ostaiks  of  Siberia  "  regardent  comme  sacre  I'arbre  ou  un  aigle 
a  fait  sa  ponte  plusieurs  annees  de_ suite;  et  ils  ont  aussi  beaucoup 
d'egards  pour  cette  aigle.  On  ne  peut  les  offenser  plus  cruellement 
qu'en  tuant  cette  aigle  ou  en  detruisant  son  nid." — ("Voyages  de 
Pallas,"  vol.  iv.  pp.  81,  82.) 

The  very  name  of  owl  {googue)  was  considered  unlucky  by  the 
Abyssinians  for  use  as  the  watchword,  although  we  are  told  that  it 
was  so  used.  —  (See  Bruce,  "  Nile,"  vol.  iv.  p.  698.) 

That  a  belief  in  the  sinister  character  of  the  hooting  of  the  owl  by 
night  prevailed  all  over  Europe,  especially  among  the  Romans,  in  the 
period  of  their  greatest  civilization,  and  that  this  credulity  was  trans- 
mitted down  almost  to  oar  own  times,  see  in  Brand,  "  Popular 
Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  206   et  seq.,  article  "Owl."     He  quotes  from 


452  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Suetonius,  Pliny,  Ovid,  Lucan,  Claudia,  and  from  various  old  English 
authors,  —  "  Tlie  cryinge  of  the  owle  by  night  betokeneth  deathe,  as 
divinours  conjecte  and  deme,"  and 

"  Then  screech-owls  croak  upon  the  chimney-tops 
It 's  certain  then  you  of  a  corse  shall  hear." 

In  Egypt,  "  it  is  said  that  in  whatever  house  a  cat  died  all  the 
family  shaved  the  eyebrows."  —  (Idem,  vol.  iii.  p.  38,  article 
"  Sorcery.") 

"  In  the  earliest  period  the  horse  seems  to  have  been  the  favorite 
animal  for  sacrifice."  —  ("  Tent.  Mythol.,"  Grimm,  vol.  i.  p.  47.) 

The  crow  was  always  a  bird  of  bad  omen  among  the  Eomans.  — 
(See  Brand,  "Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  213,  article  "The 
Crow.") 

Roman  magicians  asserted  "  that  the  heart  of  a  horned  owl  applied 
to  the  left  breast  of  a  woman,  while  asleep,  will  make  her  disclose  all 
her  secret  thoughts.  .  .  .  Persons  who  have  it  about  them  in  battle 
will  be  sure  to  display  valor ; "  but  "  it  was  ominous  to  see  the  bird 
itself."  —  (Pliny,  lib.  xxix,  c.  26.) 

The  crocodile  seems  to  take  in  Borneo  the  place  occupied  so  gen- 
erally elsewhere  by  the  serpent ;  although  we  know  that  in  Central 
America  the  alligator  was  revered,  and  along  the  Nile  in  many  dis- 
tricts the  crocodile.  — (See  Bock's  "Head-Hunters  of  Borneo,"  London, 
1881,  passim.) 

"The  hare,  which  shares  with  the  cat  the  reputation  of  being  the 
familiar  of  witches,  has  naturally  some  virtues  attributed  to  it.  Thus 
that  the  right  forefoot  worn  in  the  pocket  will  infallibly  ward  off  rheu- 
matism is  a  common  belief  in  Northamptonshire,  and  generally  over 
England."  ("Folk-Medicine,"  Black,  p.  154.)  The  Chinese  say  that 
a  hare  sits  at  the  foot  of  the  cassia-tree  in  the  moon  pounding  out 
the  drugs  of  which  the  elixir  of  immortality  is  compounded.  In  a  poem 
of  Tu-fu,  a  bard  of  the  T'ang  dynasty,  the   fame    of  this   hare  is 

sung,  — 

"  The  frog  is  not  drowned  in  the  river  ; 
The  medicine  hare  lives  forever." 

"  The  devil's  mark  was  said  to  sometimes  resemble  the  impression  of 
a  hare's  foot.  .  .  .  Seeing  a  hare  was  thought  in  Ireland  to  produce  a 
hare-lip  in  the  child  to  be  bom  ;  and,  as  a  charm,  the  woman  who 
unfortunately  saw  the  hare  was  recommended  to  make  a  small  rent 
immediately  in  some  part  of  her  dress." —  (Idem,  p.  155.) 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  COCKS  AND  HENS.  453 

*'  It  is  held  extremely  unlucky,  says  Grose,  to  kill  a  cricket,  a  ladybug, 
a  swallow,  martiu,  robin  red-breast,  or  wren,  —  perhaps  from  the  idea  of 
its  being  a  breach  of  hospitality,  all  these  birds  and  insects  alike  taking 
refuge  in  our  houses.  .  .  .  Persons  killing  any  of  the  above-mentioned 
birds  or  insects,  or  destroying  their  nests,  will  infallibly,  within  the  course 
of  the  year,  break  a  bone,  or  meet  with  some  other  dreadful  misfortune. 
.  .  .  On  the  contrary,  it  was  deemed  lucky  to  have  martins  or  swal- 
lows build  their  nests  in  the  eaves  of  a  house  or  in  the  chimneys.  .  .  . 
Its  being  accounted  unlucky  to  destroy  swallows  is  probably  a  pagan 
relic.  We  read  in  ^lian  that  these  birds  were  sacred  to  the  penates 
or  household  gods  of  the  ancients,  and  therefore  were  preserved.  They 
were  honored  anciently  as  the  nuncios  of  the  spring.  The  Rhodians 
are  said  to  have  had  a  solemn  anniversary  song  to  welcome  in  the 
swallow.  Anacreon's  ode  to  that  bird  is  well  known."  Brand  also 
alludes  to  the  still  surviving  omens  attaching  to  the  swallow,  —  such 
as  "  tlie  swallow  falling  down  the  chimney,"  and  others.  —  ("  Popular 
Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  193.) 

THE   SPANISH-AMERICAN    SPORT    OF    "  CORRER    EL     GALLO  "    AND    THE    ENG- 
LISH   PASTIME    OF    "throwing    AT    '  SHROVE-COCKS.'" 

The  Spaniards  brought  with  them  to  the  New  World  a  cruel  form  of 
sport,  wliich  consisted  in  burying  a  cock  or  hen  in  the  earth  up  to  its 
neck,  and  then  allowing  the  young  men  of  the  village  to  mount  their 
horses,  and  charging  down  at  full  speed  upon  the  hapless  bird,  reach 
down  from  their  saddles  and  endeavor  to  seize  it  and  wring  its  neck. 
This  sport  (as  seen  by  the  author  in  the  Indian  Pueblo  of  Santo  Do- 
mingo, New  Mexico,  in  1881,  and  described  by  him  in  "The  Sn. .  e 
Dance  of  the  Moquis  "  )  is  evidently  a  distorted  form  of  the  sacrifice  of 
the  chicken  deity,  which  is  to  be  discovered  in  many  parts  of  Europe, 
always  under  the  guise  of  brutal  sport. 

In  England  there  was  a  modification.  A  goose  was  hung  up  by  the 
feet,  and  then  the  villagers  ran  and  attempted  to  seize  its  head,  which 
was  finally  pulled  off.  There  was  still  another  of  the  same  series  in 
which  a  cat  was  put  in  a  barrel,  and  the  barrel  was  then  beaten  to 
pieces.  —  (See  Brand,  "  Popular  Antiquities,"  vol.  iii.  p.  40,  article 
"Sorcery.") 

There  was  another  English  pastime,  "  Throwing  at  Shrove-Cocks," 
much  of  the  same  nature.  —  (See  idem,  vol  i.  p.  101,  article  "Ash- 
Wednesday,"  and  p.  72,  article  "  Shrove -Tuesday.") 


454  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

Grimm  describes  the  "  heathen  custom  of  tying  cocks  to  the  tops 
of  holy-trees,"  wliich  prevailed  very  generally  over  Europe  in  Pagan 
times.  "  The  Wends  erected  cross-trees,  but  still  secretly  heathen  at 
heart,  they  contrived  to  fix  at  the  very  top  of  the  poles  a  weather- 
cock."—  (Grimm,  "Teutonic  Mythology,"  London,  vol.  ii.  p.  672.) 

"  In  parts  of  Germany,  Hungary,  Poland,  and  Picardy,  the  reapers 
place  a  live  cock  in  the  corn  which  is  to  be  cut  last,  and  chase  it  over 
the  field,  or  bury  it  up  to  the  neck  in  the  ground ;  afterwards  they 
strike  oil"  its  neck  with  a  sickle  or  a  scythe."  —  ("  The  Golden  Bough," 
Frazer,  vol.  ii.  p.  9.  He  gives  still  other  examples  from  Westphalia, 
Transylvania,  etc.) 

See  also  Grose,  "  Dictionary  of  Buckish  Slang,"  London,  1811,  article 
"  Goose  Riding,"  in  which  it  is  stated  that  this  game  was  practised 
"  in  Derbyshire  within  the  memory  of  persons  now  living." 

THE    SCARAB^US    OF    EGYPT. 

The  radical  divergence  of  opinion  among  scholars  as  to  the  basis  of 
the  veneration  accorded  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Nile  delta  to  the 
scarabaeus  has  been  an  occasion  of  much  perplexity ;  no  two  authors 
can  be  found  to  agree  upon  the  subject. 

In  the  absence  of  anything  which  can  be  considered  conclusive,  it  is 
not  worth  while  to  more  than  allude  to  the  fact  that  it  was  the  dung- 
beetle  to  which  this  adoration  was  manifested,  and  possibly  because  it 
associated  itself  with  material  so  intimately  connected  with  the  living 
organism. 

The  dung-beetle  "  scarabaeus  .  .  .  worn  as  an  amulet  for  the  cure 
of  fever."  —  (Pliny,  lib.  xxx.  cap,  30.) 

See  also  "  Saxon  Leechdoms,"  vol.  i.  p.  16,  in  which  the  preceding 
paragraph  from  Pliny  is  quoted. 

"  To  the  Egj'ptians  the  beetle  (scarabaeus)  was  sacred,  being  an 
emblem  of  inmost  life  and  mysterious  self-generation.  They  believeil 
that  he  proceeded  out  of  matter  which  he  rolled  into  globules  and 
buried  in  manure."  —  (Grimm,  "Teut.  MythoL,"  vol.  ii.  p.  692.) 

"  The  Thebaic  beetle,  the  first  animal  that  is  seen  alive  after  the 
Kile  retires  from  the  land,"  Bruce  thinks  that  the  scarabaeus  was 
the  symbol  of  "  the  land  which  had  been  overflowed  and  from  whicli 
the  water  had  soon  retired,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  resurrection 
or  immortality,  neither  of  which  were  at  that  time  in  contemplation."  — 
("  Nile,"  Bruce,  Dublin,  1790,  vol.  i.  p.  129.) 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  COCKS  AND  HENS.  455 

Sir  Samuel  Baker  saya :  "  It  appears  shortly  after  the  commence- 
ment of  the  wet  season,  its  labors  continuing  until  the  cessation  of  tho 
rains,  at  which  time  it  disappears.  Was  it  not  worshipped  by  tho 
ancients  as  the  harbinger  of  the  high  Nile  1"  —  ("  The  Albert  Nyanza," 
pp.  240,  241.) 

"  On  sait  que  I'escarbot  ou  fouille-merde,  qui  nait  dedans  et  qui  s'en 
nourrit,  etait  pour  les  Egyptiens  I'image  du  monde,  du  soleil,  d'Isis, 
d'Osiris." —  ("  Bib.  Scat.,"  pp.  1  and  2,  quoting  Pliny,  lib.  xxx.  cap.  1 1  ; 
lib.  ii.  cap.  30 ;  Kircher,  Prodrom.  Egypt,  cap.  ult.) 

The  beetle  was  not  killed  by  the  peasantry  of  Ireland,  according  to 
Lady  Wilde.     See  her  book,  page  175. 

Scholars  will  understand  that  the  remarks  submitted  upon  the  vene- 
ration attaching  to  all  these  animals  have  been  introduced  merely  as 
aids  to  memory  in  the  consideration  of  this  matter,  and  not  as  com- 
pletely covering  all  that  could  be  advanced  on  the  subject. 


456  SCATALOGIC   KITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


L. 

THE  PEESISTENCE  OF  FILTH   REMEDIES 

4  NOTHER  feature  deserving  of  attention  is  the  persistence  with 
■^^^  -which  the  same  remedies  have  been  perpetuated  through  the  cen- 
turies; from  Hippocrates,  perhaps,  certainly  from  Pliny  to  Sextus 
Placitus,  then  to  "  Saxon  Leechdoms,"  and  thence  to  tlie  authorities 
prepared  immediately  after  the  discovery  of  printing,  there  is  a  trans- 
mittal of  the  same  prescriptions  for  the  same  diseases. 

Avicenna,  the  Arabian,  has  unmistakably  drawn  the  inspiration  of 
his  knowledge  from  the  broken  fountains  of  Latin-Christian  civiliza- 
tion. 

EPILEPSY. 

The  dung  of  the  peacock  was  one  of  the  favorite  prescriptions  for 
the  alleviation  of  epilepsy,  the  disease  so  pre-eminently  of  divine  origin 
that  by  the  Romans  it  was  termed  the  Divine  Disease  ^  (Morbus  sacer). 

Epilepsy  was  likewise  called  the  *'  comitial  disease,"  because,  accord- 
ing to  the  different  authorities  consulted  upon  the  subject,  the  moment 
a  Roman  was  attacked  by  it,  the  "  comitia,"  if  iu  session,  were  dis- 
solved. The  "comitia  .  .  .  were  the  assemblies  of  the  clans  for  de- 
liberating upon  such  important  matters  as  the  appointment  of  judges, 
etc."  ^    Of  exactly  what  transpired  afterwards  we  have  no  knowledge  ;  it 

*  Hippocrates  did  not  believe  that  epilepsy  was  a  "divine"  disease,  sent  by  the 
gods  ;  such  an  idea  was,  in  his  opinion,  fostered  by  quacks  for  personal  advantage. 
—  (See  the  edition  of  his  work  by  Francis  Adams,  Sydenham  Society,  London, 
1849.) 

"  Nothing  could  tend  more  to  retard  the  progi'ess  of  medicine,  and  paralyze  all 
efforts  for  its  improvement,  than  the  opinion,  once  so  generally  entertained,  of  the 
celestial  origin  of  disease,  which,  if  admitted,  appears  necessarily  to  demand  divine 
interposition  for  its  relief.  Religion  and  medicine  were  both  broiight  into  contempt 
by  the  adoption  of  sacrifices  and  incantations  and  the  mercenary  practices  of  the 
priests  to  insure  intercession  with  the  gods."  —  ("Medic.  Superstitions,"  Pettigrew, 
p.  45.) 

2  Epilepsy  was  called  the  comitial  disease  "  because  the  comitia  were  prorogued 
in  the  event  of  any  ominous  case  of  this  disorder."  —  (White-Ridley,  Latin-Euglish 
Diet.     See  also  Lempri^re's  "  Classical  Dictionary,"  article  "Comitia.") 


THE   PERSISTENCE   OF   FILTH   REiMEDlES.  457 

is  most  likely  that  the  assembled  clans  devoted  themselves  to  supplicat- 
ing the  gods  to  take  mercy  upon  an  afflicted  kinsman.  It  is  not  at  all 
beyond  the  limits  of  probability  that  the  patient  was,  in  early  days, 
sacrificed  to  appease  the  wrath  of  the  deity  inflicting  the  punishment, 
or  disease  as  we  should  designate  it.  This,  at  least,  is  the  only  rational 
inference  to  be  drawn  from  the  action  taken  with  the  clothing  worn 
during  the  fit,  and  the  excrement  voided  at  tlie  same  time,  both  of 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  burned, — a  reminiscence  of  the  earlier 
practice  when  such  a  fate  was  meted  out  to  the  victim  himself. 

But  we  do  find  that  the  belief  in  transference  or  transplantation  was 
one  of  the  underlying  principles  of  all  medical  practice  in  ancient  and 
mediaeval  times ;  and,  by  a  reference  to  the  examples  cited,  it  will  be 
noted  that  special  stress  was  laid  upon  the  employment  of  clippings  of 
the  hair  or  nails  of  the  patient,  or  his  urine,  ordure,  or,  in  rarer  in- 
stances, his  saliva  or  perspiration ;  these  were  to  be  placed  in  egg-shells 
and  then  buried  in  ant-hills,  thrown  into  fish-ponds,  given  to  dogs  or 
chickens,  or  thrown  out  in  the  cross-roads,  in  the  hope  that  some  trav- 
eller, impelled  by  curiosity,  would  pick  up  the  strange  package  and 
with  it  take  the  disease  from  the  original  sufferer. 

All  diseases  were  believed  to  be  punishments  inflicted  by  angry 
gods;  therefore,  all  medicines  were  originally  charms,  i.  e.  oblations  or 
sacrifices  to  propitiate  the  offended  spirits  or  to  secure  the  interposition 
of  still  more  powerful  gods  who  should  render  nugatory  the  malevolent 
work  of  the  minor.  Sometimes,  the  charms  employed  suggest  unmis- 
takably the  prior  existence  of  human  sacrifice ;  the  trembling  victim 
was  ordered  to  sacrifice  himself  or  one  of  his  household.  But,  on  the 
principle  that  the  part  represents  the  whole,  in  other  words,  that  the 
actual  sacrifice  could  be  deferred  in  consideration  of  the  presentation 
of  a  pledge,  such  a  pledge  was  offered  in  the  shape  of  hair,  nails,  skin, 
blood,  excrements,  saliva,  or  shreds  of  the  clothing  belonging  to  the 
interested  devotee,  the  supposition,  of  course,  being  that  the  propiti- 
ated Deity  could,  at  a  future  time,  insist  upon  the  execution  of  the 
contract,  or  the  consuinmation  of  the  sacrifice  the  pledge  guaranteed. 

Therefore,  when  we  find  in  "  sympathetic "  cures,  that  human 
exuviae,  excrements,  etc.,  are  thrown  into  ponds,  we  may  without  diffi- 
culty infer  that  the  fishes  or  water  gods,  in  accepting  the  oblation, 
accepted  the  sacrifice  as  symbolized,  and,  being  appeased,  took  back  to 
themselves  the  disease  they  had  in  their  wrath  inflicted. 

The  same  is  the  underlying  principle  when  such  "  charms,"  as  we 
very  properly  call  them,  were  hung  upon  trees,  or  stones,  or  around 


458  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

holy  wells ;  it  was  the  guardian  spirits  of  those  localities  which  had 
been  offended  and  must  be  mollified  by  the  "  carmen  "  or  ode  of  incan- 
tation which  was  an  inseparable  adjunct  of  all  such  votive  offerings,  — 
from  which  comes  our  own  word  "  charm."  ^ 

"When  the  "charm"  was  thrown  to  a  dog,  or  placed  in  a  field,  where 
cattle,  horses,  or  sheep,  or  wild  beasts  might  pasture  upon  it,  an  ani- 
mal god  had  to  be  propitiated ;  and  where  it  was  simply  thrown  out 
on  the  road,  or,  better  still,  at  a  cross-roads,  the  "  earth-spirits,"  or 
some  goblins  not  definitely  determined  upon,  in  the  mind  of  the  sacri- 
ficer,  were  believed  to  be  the  authors  of  his  infirmity. 

Hanging  these  charms  up  in  the  chimney  of  one's  own  house  was 
clearly  an  invocation  to  clan  or  family  spirits  to  withdraw  their  wrath 
from  an  afiiicted  kinsman,  or  hasten  to  his  assistance.  Viewed  in  this 
light,  the  "  charms  "  that  to  us  seem  so  trivial,  the  rags,  tufts  of  hair, 
etc.,  may,  in  the  mind  of  the  person  offering  them,  have  been  obla- 
tions of  the  most  sacred  character. 

•  The  word  "carmen"  shown  to  be  the  origin  of  "charm,"  by  Grimm. — 
("Tent.  Mythology,"  vol.  iii.  p.  1035.) 

The  same  derivation  is  given  by  "Webster  and  other  authorities. 

In  the  Samoan  islands  "  When  offerings  were  eaten  in  the  night  by  dogs  or  rats, 
it  was  supposed  that  the  god  chose  to  become  incarnate  for  the  time  being  in  the 
form  of  such  living  creatures." — ("  Samoa,"  G.  Turner,  London,  1884,  p.  25.) 


BEASON  OF  THE  USE  OF  HUMAN   ORDURE  AND  URINE.       459 


LI. 

AN  EXPLANATION   OF   THE  EEASON  WHY  HUMAN    OR- 
DURE AND    HUMAN   URINE  WERE  EMPLOYED   IN 
MEDICINE  AND  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES. 

ANCESTOR-WORSHIP. MAN-WORSHIP.  —  THE   GRAND   LAMA. 

"TTOMO  est  medicns,  et  ex  homine  medicina  paratur,"  said  Flem- 
-*-*"  ming,  in  his  "  De  Remediis  ex  corpora  humane  desumtis,"  that 
is  to  say,  man  being  a  doctor,  from  man  medicine  is  prepared. 

The  savage,  with  all  his  fear  of  the  vague  and  indefinable,  had  still 
a  wonderful  belief  in  hi>mself  as  the  greatest  of  nature's  works ;  all  his 
great  gods  he  created  in  his  own  image  and  likeness ;  he  went  even 
further,  and  ascribed  to  the  priests  or  representatives  of  the  gods,  the 
same  respect  and  veneration  as  were  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  gods 
themselves ;  hence  arose  man-worship,  still  existing  in  Thibet  in  its 
most  pronounced  form,  and  surviving  in  Europe  down  to  the  present 
generation  almost,  in  the  modification  known  as  "touching  for  the 
king's  evil,"  which  touching  derived  its  efficacy  from  the  double  belief 
that  all  ailments  were  sent  from  some  supernatural,  and,  generally, 
maleficent,  source,  and  could,  therefore,  best  be  cui'ed  by  the  imposi- 
tion of  the  hands  of  an  individual  whom  the  inunction  of  a  little  con- 
secrated fat  had  bound  more  closely  to  the  Omnipotent.^ 

This  belief  cropped  out  in  charms  and  talismans,  which  were  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  medicines  to  avert  bad  luck  and  remedy  dis- 
ease, itself  a  manifestation  of  bad  luck ;  or,  to  express  the  idea  still 
more  clearly,  medicines  themselves  were  nothing  but  charms  originally, 
in  the  application  of  which  our  forefathers  paid  less  attention  to  phar- 
maceutical properties  than  they  did  to  those  of  an  occult  or  "sympa- 
thetic "  nature  which  their  own  ignorance  attributed  to  them. 

1  The  anointing  of  kings  is  a  survival  of  Pagan  usages  ;  anointed  monarchs  are 
alluded  to  in  the  sacred  books  of  Thibet :  "  du  monarque  oint  .  .  .  Pratimoksha 
Suti-a."  — (W.  "W.  Rockhill,  Societe  Asiatique,  Paris,  1885.)      ' 


460  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

Animals  and  plants  and  stones,  being  objects  of  worship,  were  natur- 
ally enough  called  upon  to  furnish  remedies  for  all  ailments,  and  pallia- 
tives for  every  misfortune.  The  grandest  animal  of  all,  man,  could 
not  well  be  omitted  from  the  Materia  Medica ;  every  thing  that  per- 
tains to  either  sex,  either  in  structure  or  in  function,  must  have  im- 
pressed the  untutored  mind  with  a  sense  of  awe ;  all  excretions,  solid 
or  fluid,  were  invested  with  mystic  properties,  and  called  into  requisi- 
tion upon  occasions  of  special  import. 

On  the  subject  of  man-worship,  consult  Frazer,  "  The  Golden  Bough," 
vol.  i.  c.  2,  pp.  8,  9. 

"  Among  the  negroes,  royalty  is  deified  ;  kings  are  supposed  to  be 
of  the  race  of  gods,  and,  after  death,  become  demi-gods."  —  ("  Fetich- 
ism,"  Baudin,  p.  24.) 

Saliva,  the  ordure,  urine,  catamenial  fluid,  blood,  bile,  calculi,  bones, 
skulls, — all  were  mysterious,  and  therefore  were  "medicine,"  espe- 
cially when  obtained  from  a  saint  or  lama. 

This  belief  subsisted  among  tribes  and  communities  long  after  civil- 
ization of  a  high  type  had  been  attained,  and  is  probably  what  Saint 
Mark  alludes  to  in  an  ambiguous  passage,  when  he  says,  "  It  is  not  the 
things  which  enter  a  man's  body,  but  those  which  come  out  of  it, 
which  defile  him." 

Again,  it  is  not  from  the  bodies  of  the  living  alone,  but  from  the 
corpses  of  the  dead  likewise,  that  medicinal  preparations  were  derived  ; 
but  in  the  latter  case  there  enters  into  the  question  another  expression 
of  thought,  shared  by  primitive  man  in  all  countries  and  in  all  ages ; 
i.  e.,  that  the  part  is  ever  the  representative  of  the  whole,  and  that 
when  the  whole  cannot  be  obtained,  the  part  will  be  equally  effica- 
cious. Hence  the  precious  care  with  which,  in  all  communities  in  a 
low  state  of  culture,  the  bones,  teeth,  rags  of  clothing,  and  other 
exuviae  of  the  sacred  dead  have  been  treasured. 


EASTER  EGGS.  461 


LII. 

EASTER  EGGS. 

T^HE  constant  use  of  the  egg  in  effecting  these  cures  by  transplan- 
-*-  tation  awakens  a  suspicion  that  the  origin  of  the  pretty  custom 
of  giving  away  Easter  eggs,  beautifully  colored,  was  induced  by  some- 
thing more  than  charitable  impulse.  Nearly  every  usage  that  remains 
among  iis  as  a  game  or  a  play  derives  from  a  serious  ancestry.  Easter 
was  pre-eminently  the  festival  of  the  Chistian  church  which  most 
tenaciously  preserved  the  rites  of  paganism.  It  was,  for  some  reason, 
looked  upon  as  the  season  when  the  human  body,  as  well  as  the  house 
occupied  by  that  body,  should  undergo  a  thorough  cleansing,  and  get 
rid  of  all  its  ailments.  The  coloring  of  the  eggs  suggests  color-sym- 
bolism, an  essentially  heathen  idea,  still  retained  among  ourselves  in 
full  vigor,  under  many  Protean  disguises. 

When  the  Puritans  gained  control  of  the  government  of  Great 
Britain,  the  coloring  of  eggs,  as  we  may  imagine,  was  temporarily  dis- 
continued. The  "  picking  "  of  the  eggs  is  a  survival  from  one  of  the 
innumerable  forms  of  divination  by  lot  in  which  the  pagan  mind  of 
Rome  and  elsewhere  delighted. 

Therefore  we  may  reasonably  conclude  that  the  custom,  as  trans- 
mitted to  us,  is  a  "  survival "  from  a  religious  usage  intended  to  effect 
the  transference  by  lot  of  the  diseases  with  which  the  egg-players  were 
afflicted. 

"  The  oldest,  most  familiar,  and  most  universal  of  all  Easter  cus- 
toms are  those  associated  with  eggs.  Hundreds  of  years  before  Christ, 
eggs  held  an  important  place  in  the  theology  and  philosophy  of  the 
Egyptians,  Persians,  Gauls,  Greeks,  and  Romans,  among  all  of  whom 
an  egg  was  the  emblem  of  the  universe,  and  the  art  of  coloring  it  was 
profoundly  studied.  The  sight  of  street  boys  striking  their  eggs  to- 
gether to  see  which  is  the  stronger  and  shall  win  the  other,  was  as 
common  in  the  streets  of  Rome  and  Athens,  two  thousand  years  ago, 
if  we  are  to  believe  antiquarians,  as  it  is  in  any  of  our  American  cities 


462  SCATALOGIC  RITES   OF   ALL   NATIONS.- 

to-day.  These  eggs,  now  called  Easter  eggs,  were  originally  known  as 
Pasche  eggs,  corrupted  to  paste  eggs,  because  connected  with  the 
Paschal  or  Passover  feast.  One  reason  for  associating  the  egg  with 
the  day  on  which  our  Saviour  rose  from  the  dead  may  be,  that  the 
little  chicks  entombed,  so  to  speak,  in  the  egg,  rising  from  it  into  life, 
was  regarded  as  typical  of  an  ascension  from  the  grave. 

"  In  the  north  of  England  it  is  customary  to  exchange  presents  of 
Easter  eggs  among  the  children  of  families  who  are  on  intimate  terms, 
a  custom  which  also  prevailed  largely  among  the  ancients,  and  to 
which  the  sending  of  Easter  cards  and  other  offerings,  which  has 
become  so  popular  here  of  late  years,  may  be  traced."  —  (From  the 
"Press,"  Philadelphia,  Penn.,  April  21,  1889.) 

"  Thirty  years  ago,  it  was  a  common  practice  for  all  elderly  people 
to  be  bled  or  cupped  each  spring."  —  ("  Folk-Medicine  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Germans,"  Hoffman,  in  Trans.  Amer.  Phil.  Soc,  1889.) 

"  To  hang  an  egg  laid  on  Ascension  Day  in  the  roof  of  the  house, 
preserveth  the  same  from  all  hurt." —  (Scot,  "  Discoverie,"  p.  193.) 

"  The  modern  custom,  practised  in  Tripoli,  of  a  widow  transferring 
her  misfortunes  from  herself  by  delivering  four  eggs  to  the  first  stran- 
ger she  meets."  —  (Dalyell,  "Superstitions  of  Scotland,"  p.  110.) 

"  It  comes  to  be  thought  desirable  to  have  a  general  riddance  of 
evil  spirits  at  fixed  times,  usually  once  a  year,  in  order  that  the  people 
may  make  a  fresh  start  in  life,  freed  from  all  the  malign  influences 
which  have  been  long  accumulating  among  them."  —  ("  The  Golden 
Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  ii.  p.  163.) 

"  Modern  Jews  sacrifice  a  white  cock  on  the  eve  of  the  Festival  of 
Expiation,  nine  days  after  the  beginning  of  their  new  year.  The 
father  of  the  family  knocks  the  cock  thrice  against  his  own  head, 
saying,  'Let  this  cock  be  a  substitute  for  me,'  etc." —  (Idem,  vol.  ii. 
p.  195.) 

The  negroes  of  Guinea  seem  to  entertain  notions  on  this  subject 
worthy  of  incorporation  in  this  chapter  :  "  The  sending  of  the  parrot's 
egg  signifies,  Choose  the  kind  of  death  which  would  be  easiest  to  you ; 
otherwise,  we  will  choose  for  you." —  ("  Fetichism,"  Baudin,  p.  23.) 

In  many  portions  of  Europe  there  are  still  in  existence  rustic  obser- 
vances which,  under  the  mask  of  games,  preserve  to  the  mind  of  the 
anthropologist  the  former  rite  of  human  sacrifice.  Among  these  may 
be  mentioned  one  from  Sweden,  in  which  a  boy  —  who  in  the  past 
ages  was  evid^tly  the  victim  selected  for  sacrifice,  and  to  bear  to  the 
gods  the  messages   of  the  community,  —  goes  about  from  house  to 


EASTER   EGGS.  463 

house,  carrying  a  basket,  in  which  he  collects  gifts  of  eggs  and  the  like." 
(Frazer,  "The  Golden  Bough,"  vol.  i.  p.  78.)  It  seems  to  be  logical 
to  imagine  that  these  gifts,  sent  to  the  deities  to  propitiate  them,  also 
served  the  purpose  of  carrying  away  from  the  donors  any  ailments 
with  which  they  were  afflicted,  —  the  same  purpose  for  which  Easter 
eggs  were  broken,  and  the  transfer  of  illness  brought  about  by  lot. 
The  insignificance  of  the  egg  as  an  offering,  in  comparison  with  the 
lienefits  to  be  expected,  offers  no  argument  in  rebuttal  of  the  opinions 
just  expressed.  We  should  bear  in  mind  the  proneness  of  the  devotee 
to  reduce  the  money  value  of  his  sacrifice  or  oblations  to  the  minimum. 
This  is  peculiar  to  no  cultus,  confined  to  no  latitude.  The  worship  of 
the  chicken-god  was  apparently  very  widely  ramified,  especially  among 
the  divisions  and  subdivisions  of  what  we  have  chosen  to  call  the  Aryan 
family.  To  several  of  these  branches,  notably  the  Wendish  and  the 
Celtic,  the  chicken  was,  perhaps,  the  principal  god ;  and  he  remains 
to  this  day  in  his  proud  position,  whence  the  first  missionaries  were 
unable  to  dislodge  him,  at  the  summit  of  the  sacred  tree  or  spire  of 
the  village  church. 

Naturally  enough,  what  we  should  expect  to  see  upon  the  recurrence 
among  these  tribes  of  a  festival  in  which  their  principal  spiritual 
powers  were  to  be  invoked  to  expel  all  forms  of  disease  and  evil  from 
among  their  worshippers,  would  be  the  sacrifice  of  chickens;  but  the 
poverty  or  the  niggardliness  of  the  suppliant  in  many  cases  suggested 
a  substitution  of  the  cheaper  offering,  the  egg,  which  may,  in  its  turn, 
have  been  replaced  by  the  feathers  of  the  bird. 

In  parts  of  India,  to  this  day,  the  scapegoat  of  the  community  is  a 
cock.  "  In  southern  Konkan,  on  the  appearance  of  cholera,  the  vil- 
lagers went  in  procession  from  the  temple  to  the  extreme  boundaries 
of  the .  village,  carrying  a  basket  of  cooked  rice,  covered  with  red 
powder,  a  wooden  doll,  representing  the  pestilence,  and  a  cock.  The 
head  of  the  cock  was  cut  off  at  the  village  boundary,  and  the  body 
was  thrown  away.  When  cholera  was  thus  transferred  from  one  vil- 
lage to  another,  the  second  village  observed  the  same  ceremony,  and 
passed  the  scourge  on  to  its  neighbors."  —  ("The  Golden  Bough," 
Frazer,  vol.  ii.  p.  191.) 

"  When  spring  comes,"  said  Pantagruel  to  Panurge,  "  I  will  take 
a  purge." 

"Les  oeufs  sont  partout  fatidiques."  —  ("Les  Primitifs,"  Reclus, 
p.  356,  art.  "Les  Kolariens  du  Bengalou.") 


464  SCATALOGIC   RITES  OF  ALL  NATIONS. 


LIII. 

THE    USE    OF    BLADDERS    IN    MAKING    EXCEEMENT 
SAUSAGES. 

TT  was  believed  to  be  peculiarly  necessary  that  the  urine  or  ordure  of 
-*-  those  suffering  from  epilepsy,  yellow  jaundice,  quartan  fevers,  etc., 
should  be  placed  in  a  pig's  bladder,  and  hung  up  in  the  chimney ;  in 
other  words,  they  were  made  into  an  excrement  sausage. 

Traces  of  the  employment  of  these  sausages  appear  from  the  most 
remote  times.  Galen  has  a  paragraph  which  reads  as  if  he  had  some 
such  practice  in  mind.  Speaking  of  human  ordui-e,  he  says  :  "  Utitur 
non  modo  medicament!  quae  focis  imponuntur  commiscens,  sed  iis  quo- 
que  quae  intro  in  os  sumuntui'."  It  would  seem  that  he  was  alluding 
to  mixtures  in  domestic  medicine  when  some  such  preparations  were 
placed  on  the  hearths  (focis). 

Eor  the  potency  of  these  excrement  sausages  in  rescuing  victims 
from  the  clutches  of  witches,  from  the  yellow  jaundice,  from  fevers, 
and  other  troubles  we  have  the  assurances  of  such  grave  and  reputable 
writers  as  Schurig,  Paullini,  Etmuller,  Frommann,  and  others  of  ages 
past ;  while  Black  certifies  to  their  use  in  Staffordshire  ;  and  Hoffman 
tells  us  of  customs  among  the  Germans  of  Pennsylvania  which  are  dis- 
tinctly and  undeniably  modifications  of  those  transmitted  from  the 
mother-country.  Reference  to  the  words  of  these  authorities,  as 
hei'ein  quoted,  is  recommended  ;  among  them  the  following  may  be 
found  worthy  of  remark. 

"  The  entrails  will  be  affected  with  corrosion  when  hot  excrement 
is  placed  in  a  bladder."  —  (Frommann,  p.  1023.) 

Schurig  instances  a  farmer  who  by  hanging  up  in  his  chimney  the 
dung  of  his  neighbor's  horses  drove  them  all  into  a  consumption. — 
("Chylologia,"  p.  815.) 

In  the  Island  of  Nukahiva  the  witch  wasn't  content  with  getting 
the  excrement  of  the  victim  ;  it  had  to  be  put  in  a  "  bag  woven  in  a 
particular  manner,"  and  buried.  —  (Krusenstern.) 


THE   USE   OF  BLADDERS.  465 

The  devil  cannot  be  more  completely  frustrated  than  by  placing 
upon  some  of  his  works  human  ordure,  or  by  hanging  human  ordure 
in  the  smoke  of  the  chimney.  —  (Paullini,  p.  260.) 

"  A  certain  man  bewitched  a  boy  nine  years  old  by  placing  the  boy's 
ordure  in  a  hog's  bladder  and  hanging  the  sausage  in  a  chimney."  — 
(Idem,  p.  261.) 

In  Staffordshire,  to  cure  the  yellow  jaundice,  a  bladder  was  often 
filled  with  the  urine  of  the  patient  and  placed  near  the  fire.  (Black, 
"  Folk-Medicine.")  It  is  strange  to  encounter  among  the  Australians 
the  very  same  ideas,  expressed  in  identical  terms,  in  regard  to  effecting 
enchantments  by  means  of  the  victim's  ordure,  wrapped  in  a  roll  or 
bundle  not  altogether  unlike  the  sausages  of  European  occult  art. 

"  Should  a  Bangal  in  the  course  of  his  wanderings  drop  across  an  old 
encampment  of  Bukeens,  he  searches  about  for  some  debris  (such  as 
bones)  of  the  food  they. have  eaten  ;  but  should  his  search  for  bones  or 
some  other  kindred  debris  be  unsuccessful,  as  frequently  happens  (from 
the  fact  of  its  being  a  habit  common  to  all  the  aboriginal  tribes  to 
consume  by  fire  the  bones  of  the  game  upon  which  they  have  fed  be- 
fore they  abandon  a  camp) ,  he  anxiously  scans  the  ground  all  round 
the  abandoned  camp  for  feculent  excrement ;  and  should  any  of  the 
I>ukeens,  from  laziness  or  other  cause,  have  omitted  to  use  his  paddle, 
or  to  have  used  it  carelessly,  the  vigilant  Bangal  pounces  upon  the  un- 
hidden feces  as  a  miser  would  upon  a  treasure. 

After  he  has  secured  his  savory  find,  he  lubricates  a  piece  of  opos- 
sum-skin with  the  kidney-fat  of  some  of  his  victims,  and  carefully 
wraps  it  round  his  treasure,  after  which  yards  of  twine  are  wound 
round  and  round,  each  wind  being  what  sailors  term  a  '  half-hitch.' 
...  At  night,  when  all  in  camp  are  quiet,  the  Bangal  carefully  takes 
his  prize  from  the  bag,  beginning  a  low,  monotonous  chant,  while  he 
thrusts  one  end  of  the  prepared  roll  into  the  fire  (the  fire  is  small  by 
design) ;  during  the  process  of  gradual  combustion  the  chant  is  con- 
tinued. .  .  .  Should  it  be  his  wish  to  kill  the  Bukeen  outright  in 
one  night,  he  keeps  up  the  chant,  and  pushes  the  burning  roll  forward 
into  the  glowing  embers  as  it  consumes,  and  when  the  last  vestige  of 
it  has  dispersed  in  unsavory  smoke  the  life  of  the  Bangal's  victim 
has  ceased.  .  .  .  Should  the  Bangal,  however,  wish  to  prolong  the 
dying  agonies  of  his  foe,  he  merely  burns  a  small  portion  of  the  roll 
nightly,  chanting  his  incantation  during  the  process,  and  should  months 
pass  before  the  roll  is  totally  consumed  so  long  will  the  torture  of  his 
victim  continue.  —  ("  The  Aborig.  of  Vict,  and  Riverina,"  Beveridge, 

30 


466  SCATALOGIC   RITES   OF  ALL   NATIONS. 

Adelaide,  1889,  p.  169,  received  through  the  kindness  of  the  Royal 
Society,  Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  F,  B.  Kyngdon,  secretary.) 

"  lu  Thuriugia  a  sausage  is  stuck  in  the  last  sheaf  at  threshing,  and 
thrown  with  the  sheaf  on  the  threshing-floor.  It  i.s  called  the  "  bar- 
renwurst,"  and  is  eaten  by  all  the  threshers.  After  they  have  eaten 
it,  a  man  is  encased  in  pease  straw,  and  thus  attired  is  led  through 
the  village."  —  ("  The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer,  vol.  i.  p.  371.) 

Attaching  to  this  array  of  facts  the  value  which  properly  belongs  to 
each  and  every  one  of  them,  and  no  more,  it  seems  that  the  Feast  of 
Fools  may  be  better  understood  by  regarding  it  as  the  burlesque  and 
distorted  "  survival  "  of  a  sacred,  comitial  gathering  of  the  gens  or 
community,  in  which  the  excrement  sausage  served  a  now  completely 
forgotten  purpose  in  eliminating  from  the  people  the  baleful  curse 
of  witchcraft,  epilepsy,  jaundice,  fevers,  and  other  disorders  which 
would  not  yield  promptly  to  the  simple  medicaments  of  primitive 
therapeutics. 


CONCLUSION.  467 


LIV. 

CONCLUSION. 

X  ASTLY,  it  may  be  urged  that  the  thoughtful  consideration  of  this 
-*--^  subject  will  not  be  without  results  of  importance  to  science.  It 
shows  us,  if  we  may  employ  a  mathematical  expression,  that  by  inte- 
grating the  equation  of  man's  development  between  the  limits  zero,  ia 
which  these  disgusting  practices  had  full  sway,  and  the  limit  of  a.  d. 
1891,  the  precise  extent  of  his  advancement  in  all  that  we  call  civili- 
zation cau  better  be  understood. 

The  biologist  and  psychologist  may  find  material  to  demonstrate  to 
what  extent  primitive  man,  in  corresponding  environment  in  different 
regions  of  the  world,  will  display  the  same  instincts  and  act  under 
identical  impulses. 

The  student  of  comparative  mythology  will  certainly  discover  much 
to  interest  and  instruct  him. 

The  student  of  folk-lore  should  find  here  a  field  promising  the  most 
[)rolific  results.  Folk-usage,  especially  in  folk-medicine,  —  which  is 
simply  the  crystallization  of  the  mythology  and  religious  medicine  of  the 
most  primitive  ages,  —  should  respond  most  generously  to  any  de- 
mands that  may  be  made  upon  this  and  other  points  which  the 
ordinary  writer  believes  to  be  too  unclean  for  his  pen. 

To  the  author  it  has  been  a  work  involving  apparently  endless  re- 
search, much  of  it  barren  of  result,  and  a  correspondence  with  scholars 
in  all  countries,  whose  contributions  have  been  of  the  first  importance 
in  determining  that  the  filthy  rite  of  urine-drinking  as  seen  among  the 
Zunis  of  the  United  States  was  paralleled  by  the  orgies  of  other  sav- 
ages, and  had  its  counterparts  and  imitations  in  the  "  survivals,"  often 
distorted  into  burlesque,  of  nations  of  high  enlightenment. 

Verily,  it  may  be  said  in  concluding,  as  in  beginning  this  volume, 
the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man ;  the  study  of  man  is  the  study  of 
man's  religion. 


ADDENDA. 

Dr.  Thomas  G.  Morton,  of  Philadelphia,  imparts  the  information 
that  not  only  is  the  use  of  human  urine  still  general  among  ignorant 
women  during  pregnancy,  but  that  it  has  been  learned  that  female 
abortionists  have  been  in  the  habit  of  vending  a  nostrum  for  defeating 
pregnancy,  one  of  the  components  of  which  was  the  catamenial 
discharge. 

Referring  to  previous  remarks,  on  page  162,  it  may  be  noticed  that  a 
curious  instance  of  survival  by  contrariety  is  to  be  detected  in  what 
Picart  relates  of  the  Hebrew  ceremonial  of  the  present  day.  He  says 
of  the  behavior  of  the  Hebrew  while  praying,  that  he  should  carefully 
avoid  gaping,  spitting,  blowing  his  nose,  or  emitting  any  exhalations  : 
"  II  doit  eviter  autant  qu'il  se  peut  de  bailler,  de  cracher,  de  se 
moucher,  de  laisser  aller  des  vents.  (Picart,  "  Coutumes  et  Cere- 
monies," &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  126).  All  this  information  seems  to  be  taken 
from  the  work  of  the  Rabbi  Leon,  of  Modena. 

In  the  above  are  seen  the  antipodes  of  the  practices  characteristic  of 
the  worship  of  Baal-Peor  which  the  prophets  had  so  much  trouble  iu 
eradicating  from  the  minds  of  the  chosen  people. 


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472 


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Siberia,  Tent  Life  in,  George  Kennon, 

New  York,  l66o,  12th  edition. 
Siberia,  Through,  Henry  Lansdell,  Lon- 
don, 1882. 
Sioux,  Legends  of  the,  Mrs.  Eastman, 

New  York,  184'.». 
Sioux,   Sun   Dance    of   the    Ogallalla, 

Alice  Fletciier. 
Smiddy,    Rev.    Richard,    The    Druids, 

Dublin,  1871. 
Smith,   Charles,  Mr.,   translated  many 

of   the  German  works  cited   in  this 

volume. 
Smith,  Honorable  E.  W.  P. 
Smith,   George,   Assyrian    Discoveries, 

New  York,  1876;  Chaldean  Account 

of  Genesis. 
Smith,  Mrs.  James,  The  Roandik  Tribes 

(Australia),  quoted. 
Smith,  W.   Robertson,  editor  Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica. 
Smithsonian  Institution. 
Smithsonian  Contributions. 
Smollett,  Tobias,  Humphrey  Clinker. 
Smvth,  Brough,  Aborigines  of  Austra- 
lia, London,  1878. 
Snake    Dance,    The,    of    the    Moquis, 

Bourke,  London  and  New  York,  1884. 
Socie'te'    Asiatique.      See  Pratimoksha 

Sutra. 
Socrates. 

Soldiers  Three,  Kipling. 
Solovof,    Voyages,    quoted    in    Coxe's 

Russian  Discoveries. 
Solomon  Ben  Jarchi. 
South   Mountain    Magic,    Mrs.  M.   V. 

Dahlgren,  Boston,  1«82. 
Sorcery   and   Magic,  Thomas   Wright, 

London,  1831. 
Southey,  Robert,  Commonplace  Book, 

London,  1849.     The  Doctor,  London, 

1848. 
Spain,  Travels  in,  Bourganne,  in  Pinker- 
ton. 
Sparrmann,  Account  of  Africa,  in  Mal- 

tebrun,  and  in  Pinkerton. 
Speke,  Nile. 
Spellman,  quoted. 
Spencer,  Herbert. 
Spiers  and  Surenue,  French  and  English 

Dictionary. 
Squier,  E.  G. 
jtandard,  of  London. 
Stanley,  Henry  M.,  Congo,  New  York, 

1885 ;  Through  the  Dark  Continent, 

N.  Y .  1878. 
Staple  of  News,  Ben  Jonson. 


Star,  Evening,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Steller,  History  of  Kamtchatka. 
Steller,     Kamtchatka,      Buiuiemeyer's 

translation. 
Stephens,  Robert. 

Sterne,  Laurence,  Tristram  Shandy,  edi- 
tion of  London,  1873. 
Stillingfleet,  Defence  of  Discourse  con- 
cerning Idolatry  in  Church  of  Rome, 

quoted. 
Strabo,  believed  the  Magi  and  the  Druids 

were  the  same  ;  his  account  of  the  Cel 

tiberii. 
Stratton,  Captivity  of  the  Oatman  Girls 

San  Francisco,  Cal.,  1857. 
Strutt,  Sports  and  Pastimes  of  the  Eng 

lish  People,  London,  1855. 
Struvs,  John,   Voyages,   etc.,   London 

1633. 
Stukeley,Account  of  Druidioal  remains 

quoted. 
Suetonius. 
Sun,  New  York. 
Sun    Dance    of    the    Ogallalla   Sioux, 

Alice  Fletcher. 
Superstitions  of  Scotland,  John  Graham 

Dalyell. 
Swan,  J.  G.,  Indians  of  Cape  Flattery, 

in  Smithsonian  Contributions. 
Swietwn,      Commentarioriim,      Lyons, 

1776. 
Swift,  Jonathan,  Dean,  Works. 


Tacitus,  Annals  (Oxford  trans.,  London, 

1871). 
Tales  and  Traditions   of  the  Eskimo, 

Rink. 
Talmud. 
Talmudic  Miscellany,  Paul  Isaac  Her- 

shon,  Boston,  1880. 
Tattooing  among  civilized  People,  Dr. 

Robert  Fletcher. 
Tavernier,  J.  B.,  Travels,  Nouvelle  re- 
lation de  I'interieur  du  Serail  du  Grand 

Seigneur,  Paris.  1675. 
Terence,  Latin  Poet. 
Ternaux  Campan,  Voyages,  etc.,  Paris. 
Tertullian,  Christian  Father. 
Teutonic     Mythology,     .Jacob     Grimm 

(Stallybrass     translation),     London, 

1882. 
Tezozomoc,  Cronica  Mexicana,  in  Kings- 

borougii. 
Theodoret,  De  Evangelii  veritatis  cog- 

nitione,  quoted. 
Thevenot,  Itinerar.  Orient. 
Thibet,  a  Description  of,  in  Pinkerton, 

vol.  vii.,  London.  1814. 
Thibet,  Clements  C.  Markhara,  London. 


31 


482 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Thiers,  J.  B.,  Traite  des  Superstitions, 
Paris,  1741. 

Tiiurnberg,  Account  of  tlie  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  in  Pinkerton. 

Times  of  India,  quoted. 

Times,  of  New  5foik. 

Titus  Livius,  quoted. 

Tollius,  P.,  quoted. 

Tookc,  William,  edition  of  Lucian's 
Tragopodagra,  London,  lb20. 

Torquemada,  Mouarcliia  Indiana,  Ma- 
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Totemism. 

Totemism,  James  G.  Frazer,  M.A.,  Edin- 
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Tournefort,  Voyage  to  the  Levant,  ed. 
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Tragedy  of  the  Gout,  Blambeauseant 
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Tree,  Lambert,  Honorable,  U.  S.  Minis- 
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Tregear,  E.  T.,  Maoris  of  New  Zealand. 

Tribune,  New  York. 

Trumbull,  Henr}'  Clay,  editor  of  Sun- 
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1885. 

Tuchmann,  J.,  La  Fascination,  Id  Melu- 
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TurnbuU,  Reverend  H.  Clay. 

Turner's  Embassy  to  Thibet,  London, 
1806. 

Turner,  Samoa. 

Tvlor,  E.  B.,  Primitive  Culture,  London, 
'l«7L 


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Webster,  Noah,  English  Dictionarv. 

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BIBLIOGBAPIIY. 


483 


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Zagoskiii,  Russian  explorer. 
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INDEX. 


Abbot  of  Unreason,  13. 

Abnormal  Appetite,  28,  29,  30,  31,  32, 
238,  311,  314,  316. 

Abortion,  105,  produced  by  mistletoe, 
105.     See  also  under  Parturition. 

Aconite,  used  to  poison  panthers ;  hu- 
man ordure  the  antidote,  244. 

Afghans,  flatulence  regarded  as  a  deadly 
insult  by,  161. 

After-birth,  216,  224,  226,  235,  2.36,  343, 
354,  355;  a  remedy  for  witchcraft, 
215;  in  philters,  224  ;  as  an  anti-phil- 
ter, 354,  355.     See  also  Therapeutics. 

Agaric,  71,  77,  81,  82,  83 ;  the  cause  of 
fairy  circles,  82,  83 ;  excluded  from 
Brahminical  dietary,  92, 109.  See  also 
Mushrooms. 

Agliozis,  a  Hindu  sect  who  eat  human 
ordure,  40,  126. 

Agnus  Castus,  225. 

Agriculture,  26,  80,  128,  129,  140,  180. 
190,  191,  192,  193,  345,  3-50,  351,  353, 
438 ;  taught  to  men  by  Saturn,  129 ; 
urine  and  ordure  in,  129;  cow  dung 
used  to  make  threshing-floors  in 
France  and  Italy,  180 ;  religious  rites 
in  connection  with,  in  China,  345 ;  cat- 
amenial  women  marched  round  the 
Roman  fields,  450,  —  see  also  the  de- 
scription from  "Hiawatha;"  the 
touch  of  a  catamenial  ^voman  ruined 
vines,  fruit  trees,  etc.,  353;  "fool 
ploughs,"  438.  See  also  under  La- 
trines. 

"  Aiguilette,  nouer  1'."  See  Witchcraft, 
Ligatures. 

Album  Graecum.     See  Dog  Dung. 

Alcohol,  39 ;  mixed  with  urine  in  drink, 
39;  abstained  from  by  Lamas  while 
making  sacred  pills,  50  ;  invented  by 
the  Chinese,  2197  b.c.  75,  76;  ob- 
tained from  mushrooms,  81.  See  In- 
toxicants, 379. 

Alder.  See  Tree  and  Plant  Worship; 
Cures  bv  Transplantation. 

Ale,  39,  232.   See  Bride-ale ;  Intoxicants 

Amanita  Muscaria.     See  Mushrooms. 


Amber,  289 ;  believed  to  be  whale's 
dung,  271. 

Ambergris,  48. 

Ammonia,  39,  199,  201 ;  probably  sug- 
gested by  a  prior  use  of  urine,  199. 

Ammonia,  urate  of,  and  guano,  used 
in  phthisis. 

Amulets  and  talismans,  28,  42,  43,  44, 
45,  47,  48,  49,  51,  52,  225,  226,  237, 
363,  364,  .370,  371,  391,  403,  441,  4-54, 
458 ;  mistletoe  used  as  an  amulet,  in 
Sweden,  108;  in  England,  108,  111; 
cow  ordure  and  urine,  as,  112 ;  the  first 
tooth  dropped  by  a  child  an  amulet, 
363.  See  Excrement,  Grand  Lama, 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople. 

Amulets  and  talismans,  22-5,  245,  267. 

Analysis  of  the  mani  or  sacred  pills  of 
the  Buddhists,  53. 

Ancestor  worship,  459,  460.  See  Spirits, 
Gods. 

Ancestors,  skulls  of,  used  as  drinking- 
cups,  in  Thibet,  2-50. 

Animal  Worship.  See  under  Therapeu- 
tics, Philters,  Aphrodisiacs,  Parturi- 
tion, Ordeals  and  Punishments,  Mon- 
asticism.  Cosmetics,  Amulets  and 
Talismans,  Cures  by  Transplantation, 
Tattooing. 

Anthropomancy.    See  Divination. 

Anti-natural  god  of  the  Sioux,  267. 

Aphrodisiacs,  78 ;  mushrooms  regarded 
as,  78.  80,  90,  94;  onions  and  garlic 
regarded  as,  93, 94;  mistletoe  regarded 
as,  10.3,  104;  ordure  and  urine  re- 
garded as,  216,  217  ;  leopard's  dung  re- 
garded as,  217 ;  nettles  regarded  as, 
216,  217,  390:  antiphrodisiacs,  224; 
the  testes  of  the  fox  used  as  an,  225. 

April  Fool's  Day,  432,  437.  See  Festi- 
val of  Huli. 

Aqua  ex  stercore.     See  Excrement. 

Aristophanes  says  that  Esculapius  ate 
excrement,  129;  calls  thunder  flatu- 
lence, 163:  calls  doctors  "excrement 
eaters,"  278,  279. 

Arms  and  armor,  219. 


486 


INDEX. 


Arms  and  armor,  241,  242,  312,  313,  323. 
See  War  Customs. 

Asclepius,  surnaiued  Pharmacion  (the 
druggist),  believed  to  have  been  the 
first  writer  wlio  counselled  the  use  of 
liuman  excrement  in  Therapeutics, 
278. 

Aspersions,  105  (see  Mistletoe,  Holy 
Water,  Lustration, Courtship  and  Mar- 
riage), 113,  220,  225,  236, 247,  201,  390, 
393,  398,  399,  428 ;  urine  of  Hottentot 
priest  used  in  aspersions  at  weddings, 
funerals,  etc.,  229 ;  upon  young  war- 
riors at  time  of  initiation,  238,  239 ; 
urine  of  Moorish  bride  at  time  of  in- 
itiation, 229,  —  see  Queen  of  Madagas- 
car; the  water  in  which  Russian 
bride  had  been  bathed  at  time  of  ini- 
tiation, 231,  —  See  Bride-Ale."  Asper- 
sions with  urine  in  "  Witches'  Mass," 
274,  383,  388 ;  urine  used  by  the  High- 
landers for  aspersing  their  cattle,  398,. 
399.     See  Lingams. 

Aspersions,  113,  225,  264.     See  Rue. 

Aspersions,  b3'  the  Queen  of  Madagas- 
car, 60.  See  Lustrations,  Hottentot 
Marriages,  Courtship  and  Marriage, 
Holy  Water. 

Aspiialt  dissolved  by  the  catamenial 
fluid,  350,  385;  also  by  human  urine, 
385. 

Assafoetida,  322,  343,  389,  425,  444; 
called  "  Merde  du  Diable,"  343,  444. 
See  under  Garlic,  Stench,  Perfume. 

Assyria,  dung  gods  of,  130,  132. 

Aztecs  used  poisonous  mushrooms  in 
their  sacred  dances,  89,  90. 


Bacchanalia,  62,  63,  64,  75,  89,  00,  394, 
440. 

Bang.     See  Intoxicants. 

Banians  of  India  swear  by  cow  dung, 
112;  eat  cow-dung,  119. 

Baptism,  232;  mock  baptism,  2-32. 

Barrington,  "  Observations  on  the  Stat- 
utes," comments  on  tenures  of  land  by 
flatulence,  166. 

Baslisk,  eggs  of,  would  hatch  only  in 
dung,  or  under  a  toad,  268. 

Bathing.     See  Lustration. 

Bedouins  eructate  as  a  matter  of  civil- 
ity, 161 ;  consider  flatulence  a  deadly 
insult,  161.  257,  258. 

Beds  and  bedding,  urination  in  bed,  how 
prevented,  271,  375,  384;  defilement 
of,  how  occasioned,  379. 

Beer,  232. 

Beer.     See  Intoxicants. 

Belgium,  the  mannikin  of  Brussels,  165. 


Bel-phegor  filthy  rites  connected  with 
his  worship,  132,  154,  155,  156,  157, 
158,  160,  161,  173  ;  interview  between 
Moses  and  Jehovah,  ICO ;  analogous 
rites  among  the  Hebrews  and  Parsis. 
161. 

Bembino,  or  Isaic  table,  13. 

Benet,  S.  V.,  notes  on  urine  as  a  den- 
trifice,  204. 

Bhikshuni  of  Thibet,  147. 

Bile,  Human.     See  Therapeutics. 

Bitumen.     See  Asphalt. 

"  Black  drink "  of  Creeks  and  Semi- 
roles,  242 ;  of  Imbando,  Africa,  249, 
250. 

Bladders,  239,  434. 

Bladders,  239,  378,  384,  415,  416,  417, 
422,  423,  424,  434,  437,  438,  439,  464, 
465 ;  mark  of  distinction  for  gallan- 
try among  Hottentots,  239;  use  by 
Apache  and  other  American  savages, 
434.     See  Sausage. 

Bleaching.     See  Industries. 

Blood-covenant,  240. 

Boletus,  variety  of  mushroom,  is  wor- 
shipped in  Africa,  80,  91. 

"  Bona  Dea,"  one  of  the  names  of  the 
goddess  Rhea  or  Cybele,  had  urinal 
aspersions  in  her  rites,  394. 

Bones,  in  medicine.  See  Therapeutics, 
Cures  bj'  Transplantation. 

"Bora."     See  Initiation,  240,  241. 

"  Borgie  Well,"  near  Glasgow,  made  mad 
all  who  drank  of  its  waters,  76. 

Borneo,  Dj'aks  of,  have  the  Hebrew 
custom  in  regard  to  the  covering  up 
of  tlie  evacuations,  146. 

Bourkans,  or  spirits  of  the  Kalmucks,  — 
one  of  them  eats  his  own  excrement, 
49. 

Boutan,  merchants  of,  strewed  ordure 
over  their  food,  45. 

Brahmins  of  India,  use  of  cow  ordure 
and  urine  in  religion,  112,  113,  114, 
116,  118,  119,  122,  124. 

Brain,  in  Medicine.  See  Therapeutics, 
Marriage,  Aspersions. 

Bread,  urine  and  excrement,  in  making, 
32,  38. 

"Bread  of  the  Gods"  (Mexicans),  89, 
90,  91 ;  "  Cockle  Bread,"  a  Phallic 
game  in  England,  221,  222. 

Bride,  "  Bride-Ale,"  232.   See  Courtship. 

Bridges,  a  toll  of  flatulence  exacted 
from  prostitutes  crossing  the  bridge 
of  Montluc,  in  France,  166,    168,  169. 

Brussels,  the  mannikin  of,  a  Phallic 
idol,  165. 

Buddhism,  the  god  "  Sakya-Muni  "  eats 
his  own  excrement,  49. 

Buddhists,  147,  251. 


INDEX. 


487 


nuddliists  supposed  to  be  related  to  the 
Druids.  99.     See  Latiias,  Grand  Lama. 

Bull  of  Eniulphus,  bisliop  of  Roches- 
ter, 251. 

Burial.     See  Mortuary  Ceremonies. 


Calculus,  in  medicine.  See  Thera- 
peutics. 

Cape  of  Good  Hope.  See  Hottentots, 
etc. 

Capuchins,  their  beastly  customs,  147, 
148. 

Castes  of  India,  restoration  to  the,  113. 
See  also  Clans. 

Casting  urine,  896. 

Catamenia,  218,  219,  224,  296,  318,  392, 
393,  394. 

Catamenia,  a  catamenial  woman  could 
cure  "  King's  Evil,"  60 ;  mushrooms 
used  as  emmeuagogues,  83,  108 ;  mis- 
tletoe used  as  an  emmenagogue,  espe- 
cially that  of  the  oak,  108  ;  seclusion 
during  the  duration  of  the  catamenia, 
in  Alaska,  104,  150;  catamenia  used 
in  making  love-philters,  217,  218,  219, 
224,  —  see  Philters  ;  to  preserve  chas- 
tity, 219;  in  diseases,  219,  —  see  Ther- 
apeutics ;  in  witciicraft,  210,  —  see 
also  Witchcraft,  377  to  404 ;  philters 
made  of  catamenia  were  rendered 
abortive  by  hen-dung,  224,  225,  226; 
asses'  dung  restrained  excessive  cata- 
menia, 278  ;  superstitions  connected 
with  the  catamenia,  3.50,  —  see  Cos- 
metics, 367  ;  catamenial  fluid  had  to 
be  sprinkled  upon  mandrake  before  it 
could  be  pulled  out  of  the  ground, 
271,  376,  385. 

Cemetery,  urinating  through  the  wed- 
ding ring  wliile  in  a  cemetery  baffled 
witchcraft,  231.  See  also  under  Mor- 
tuary Ceremonies. 

Cerdier  states  that  the  Africans  wor- 
ship the  mushroom,  80. 

Ceremonial  observances,  206,  107,  208, 
211;  on  Holy  Thursday  among  Russian 
dissenters,  162 ;  urine  drunk  in  the 
marriage  ceremonies  of  the  Siberians, 
228.     See  also  Initiation. 

Ceremonial,  tenacity  of.    See  Survivals. 

Ceremonies  in  connection  with  agricul- 
ture in  China,  315  ;  in  pulling  medici- 
nal herbs,  etc.  See  Mandrake, 
Therapeutics ;  see  also  Weeping, 
Kissmg,  Spitting,  Saliva,  Shaving, 
Flatulence,  Urination,  Oblations  of 
Urine  and  Excrement. 

Chaise  percee  of  the  Grand  Lama,  42 ; 
the  tripod  of  Esculapius  a  chaise 
percee,  129. 


Chamber-pots,  175,  251. 

Charlotte  Elizabetii,  Princess  of  Bava- 
ria, a  coarse  letter  from,  32. 

Charms,  18H,  230,  370,  371,  .373,  405, 424, 
430,  442,  443,  457,  458,  461,  462.  See 
also  Magic,  Amulets  and  Talismans, 
Witchcraft,  Cures  by  Transplanta- 
tion. 

Chastity.   See  Continence,Anti-PhiIters. 

Cheese,  curds,  human  urine  used  in 
making  cheese  in  Germany,  181 ;  ami 
in  Switzerland,  181  ;  a  "  survival  "  of 
the  preceding  practice  among  the 
Pennsylvania  Germans,  396. 

Childbirth.     See  Parturition. 

"  Chinook  Olives,"  38,  424. 

ChrysocoUon,  a  cement  made  of  urine, 
etc.,  182,  183. 

Clallums  of  B.  North  America,  Orgies 
of,  63. 

Clans,  18.5,  18(3,  187,  188,  456,  457,  460; 
the  Roman  clans  were  convened  upon 
the  appearance  of  a  case  of  epilepsy, 
456,  457,  406.  See  Castes,  Totemism, 
Tattooing. 

Clemens  Alexandrinus,  his  account  of 
excrement  gods,  127,  128. 

Cloacina,  Roman  goddess  of  privies, 
127,  134,  264. 

Club-houses  of  secret  orders,  9. 

Cockatrice.    See  Basilisk. 

"  Cockle- Bread,"  a  Phallic  game  in  Eng- 
land, 221,  222. 

Collyrium.     See  Eye  Troubles. 

"  Comitialia  "  (see  under  Epilepsy  ;  also 
under  Clans),  4-56,  4-57,  466. 

Commodus,  the  Roman  Emperor,  ate 
excrement,  30. 

Coral,  181,  216;  color  of,  restored  by 
hanging  in  a  privy,  181 ;  coral  a  rem- 
edy for  witchcraft,  216. 

Cord,  sacred,  122.  See  Initiation,  Gir- 
dle. 

Cosmetics,  88,  287,  30fi,  307,  314,  .S.30, 
352,  3.53,  366,  367,  368.  369 :  the  dung 
of  pigeons,  mice,  crocodiles,  bulls, 
starlings,  cows,  men,  lizards,  foxes, 
dogs,  sparrows,  chickens,  donkeys, 
geese,  etc.,  used  as  ;  also  the  meconium 
of  infants,  sperm  of  frogs,  catamenia, 
"  Aqua  Omnium  Florum,'  369. 

Courtship  and  marriage,  19, 48. 66, 67, 68, 
96,  107,  185,  216  to  233;  brides  fumi- 
gated with  incense  made  from  the  ex 
crement  of  the  Patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, according  to  Arabian  writers, 
48 ;  bride  and  groom  sprinkled  with 
the  urine  of  the  Hottentot  shamans, 
59.  221 ;  divination  in  regard  to  court- 
ship and  marriage.  96 ;  the  maiden 
who  was  not  kissed  under  the  mistle- 


488 


INDEX. 


toe  would  not  be  married  within  the 
year,  1U3;  "ligatures,"  107,221 ;  wives 
in  Borneo  tattooed  on  the  thighs,  785 ; 
Apache- Yuma  matrons  tattoo,  186; 
urine  drunk  at  marriages  in  Siberia, 
228.  See  Philters,  Aphrodisiacs,  Lig- 
atures, Hing,  Wedding,  Bride,  Wool. 

Coprolite,  184. 

"  Cry,  the  more  you,  the  less  you  piss," 
182. 

Crepitus,  the  God  of  Flatulence.  See 
Flatulence. 

Crypto-Jews,  18. 

Cures  by  transplantation,  349. 

Cybele.     See  "Bona  Dea,"  445. 


Dandelion,  superstitions  in  connection 
with,  248. 

Dandruff,  304,  306,  328,  331. 

Dandruff.     See  Hair. 

Dentrifice,  urine  used  as  a,  203,  204, 
205. 

Devil's  posterior  kissed,  384. 

Devil's  presents  all  turned  to  filth  and 
dross,  270. 

Diseases,  all  cured  by  mistletoe,  99, 104, 
105, 107  ;  catamenia,  used  in  cure  of, — 
see  Catamenia,  Therapeutics;  ordure 
and  urine  used  in  the  cure  of, —  see 
Therapeutics,  Tninsference  of;  see 
"  Cures  by  Transplantation  ; "  sacred 
diseases,  —  see  Epilepsy;  the  heathen 
theory  of  disease,  423,  441,  442,  443, 
444,  445,  446,  456,  458,  457,  462. 

Divination,  11, 13,  14,  15,  16,  90,  96,  107, 
126,  155,  233,  234,  246.  247,  248.  See 
"  Cockle-Bread,"  Urinoscopy,  Gam- 
bling, Dire,  Vi'ions,  Onions,  Omens, 
"  Cockle-Rread  "  Courtship  and  Mar- 
riage, Parturition. 

Dreams,  253. 

"Drink  of  Oblivion"  of  the  Druids, 
106. 

Drink,  the  "Mad  Potion,"  Wysoccan, 
242. 

Drinks,  380. 

Drinks.  See  Foods,  Urine  as  a  Bever- 
age, Intoxicants,  Eaude  Mille  Fieurs, 
Table  Liqueurs. 

Druidism,  372. 

Druids.     See  Mistletoe. 

Ducking-stool.  See  Ordeals  and  Pun- 
ishments. 

Dung,  all  earthly  joys  compared  to,  bj' 
the  Apostle  Paul,  l)y  Saint  Mattliew, 
and  by  Thomas  a  Kempis,  271. 

Dung,  definition  of,  52,  —  See  Pe-dung, 
f^xcrement.  Dung-carts,  11,  12,  13,  14, 
15;  dung-heaps  used  m  punishment, 
87;  dung-gods,  127,  128,130,  131,  132, 


133.,  —  see  Excrement  Gods;  dung 
tiirown  by  Austrahan  neophytes,  237, 
—  see  Parturition;  thrown  at  Guinea 
negresses  in  tiieir  first  pregnancy.  237. 

Dung  of  whales,  amber  was  believed  to 
be,  271. 

Dung,  the  eggs  of  the  basilisk  would 
hatch  only  in,  269. 

Dungi,  king  of  Chaldea,  B.C.  2,000.  52. 

Dyaks  of  Borneo,  cover  up  their  evacu- 
ations, 146. 

Dyeing.     See  Industries. 

Dyeing  of  Hair.     See  Hair, 


Ear- Wax.     See  Therapeutics. 

Easter  eggs,  823.     See  Eggs. 

Eau  de  Mille  Fieurs,  made  of  cow  dung, 
30,  330;  in  medicine,  see  Therapeu- 
tics. 

Eggs,  in  "Cures  by  Transplantation" 
{(/■  V.) ;  a  plausible  explanation  of  the 
meaning  of  the  custom  of  exchang- 
ing Easter  eggs,  465. 

Emetics.     See  Therapeutics. 

Enciiantment.     See  Magic. 

Esculapius  ate  excrement,  129. 

Eucharist,  errors  in  connection  with  the 
doctrine  of  the,  54,  65,  56. 

Eucharistic  bread  sprinkled  with  human 
semen  by  the  Manicheans  and  Albi- 
genses,  '220. 

Eunuch,  the  urine  of,  used  as  an  aphro- 
disiac, 224  ;  also  as  an  antiphrodisiac, 
224;  and  as  a  remedy  for  sterility, 
233,  281 ;  emasculation,  a  religious 
rite  among  Hottentots,  238,  239;  also 
among  the  Galli,  priests  of  Cybele, 
394. 

Evergreens  at  Christmas.   See  IMistletoe. 

Excrement,  Animal.  See  Therapeutics, 
Ordeals,  Myths,  Insults,  Sacrifice, 
Industries,  Agriculture,  Commerce, 
Fuel,  Hair,  Smoking,  Philters,  Witch- 
craft, Virility. 

Excrement  eaten,  240. 

Excrement  gods,  of  Romans,  of  Egyp- 
tians, of  Assyrians,  of  Hebrews,  of 
Mexicans ;  Esculapius  an  excrement 
god  ;  the  excrement  gods  of  the  Moa- 
bites  ;  Bel-Phegor  an  excrement  god, 
127,  128,  129,  130,  131,  1.32. 

Excrement,  Human,  see  Grand  Lama 
of  Thibet ;  in  Medicine,  see  Thera- 
peutics ;  in  Punishments,  see  Ordeals 
and  Punishments ;  in  Initiation,  see 
Initiation  ;  in  Industries,  see  Indus- 
tries ;  in  Witchcraft,  see  Witchcraft ; 
was  believed  to  be  the  greatest  pana- 
cea ag.Vmst  Witchcraft ;  see  (^ures 
by  Transplantation.     See  also  Agri- 


INDEX. 


489 


culture,  Commerce,  Fuel,  Hair  Bye, 
Hair,  Philters,  Courtship  and  Mar- 
riage, Virility,  Ligatures,  War  Cus- 
toms, Divination,  Ordeals,  Myths, 
Insults,  Cosmetics,  Amulets  and 
Talismans. 

Excrement,  in  jewelry,  184. 

Exorcism.     See  Incantation. 

Ezekiel,  Hebrew  prophet,  119,  120,  121 ; 
eats  human  ordure  in  his  food ;  eats 
cow-dung  in  his  food;  lies  for  3'JO 
days  on  one  side  and  40  days  on  the 
other,  120 ;  an  explanation  of  his 
behavior,  241. 


Fairies,  232. 

Festivals,  religious,  their  commemora- 
tive character,  24. 

Fetiches.  See  Idols,  Gods,  Amulets, 
and  Talismans. 

Fingers,  human,  necklace  of,  deposited 
by  the  author  in  the  National  Museum, 
Washington,  D.  C,  364. 

Flap-Dragons.  See  "  Healths  in  Urine," 
229. 

Flattery,  Cape  (B.  North  America),  In- 
dians of,  have  an  orgy  induced  by 
poisonous  mushrooms,  48,  65. 

Flatulence,  of  fairies,  87 ;  flatulence 
would  kill  the  Eskimo  god  "  Torn- 
garsuk,"  if  witchcraft  were  going  on 
in  a  house,  157 ;  the  Devil  put  to 
flight  by  flatulence,  163,  444;  flatu- 
lence avoided  by  the  Hebrews  while 
at  prayer,  also  by  the  Parsis  ;  consid- 
ered a  deadly  insult  by  Bedouins  and 
Afghans,  161,  257  ;  a  contest  for  cham- 
pionship among  the  Arabs,  161;  adored 
by  the  Romans,  by  the  Egyptians,  by 
the  Hebrews,  by  the  Moabites,  by  the 
Assyrians,  in  the  worship  of  Bel-peor, 
127  to  1(33 ;  the  bibliography  of  the 
subject,  162 ;  tenures  of  land  in  Eng- 
land by  flatulence,  165,  166,  167 ;  a 
toll  of  flatulence  exacted  of  prosti- 
tutes who  for  the  first  time  crossed 
the  bridge  of  Montluc  in  France,  168; 
called  "  Sir  Reverence,"  by  the  Irish 
immigrants  to  the  United  States,  169 ; 
in  games  in  England,  173;  Satan 
"  lets  a  f — t,"  in  the  old  Moralities, 
173 ;  the  punishment  for,  among  small 
boys  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  174,  175, 
176;  in  obscene  tales,  119,  120. 

Flesh,  Human.  See  Mummy,  Corpse, 
Therapeutics. 

"Flowers  as  Emblems"  (Standard,  Lon- 
don), 298. 

Fly  Agaric.    See  Mushroom. 


Fly  Poison.  See  Mushroom,  Amanita, 
Agaric,  58. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  the  English  orator, 
his  essay  upon  flatulence  ;  essay  upon 
wind,  112. 

Fuel,  human  excrement  said  to  have 
been  used  as,  120;  the  excrement  of 
animals  known  to  have  been  used  as, 
120,  195,  196,  197,  198;  among  Israel- 
ites, 120. 

Fullers.     See  Industries,  Bleaching. 

Fungus.     See  Mushroom,  Mistletoe. 


Games,  252,  253,  254;  sailors',  254;  har- 
vest, 253. 

Garlic,  Lamas  abstain  from  it  while 
making  mani  pills,  50 ;  Chinese  priests 
abstain  from  it  while  sacrificing,  95; 
used  by  the  Scandinavians  to  frus- 
trate witchcraft,  96 ;  an  article  of  diet 
from  the  earliest  ages,  96 ;  tiie  smell 
of  garlic  accounted  a  sign  of  vulgarity 
in  the  time  of  Shakespeare,  96  ;  offered 
to  the  manes  of  the  dead  by  the 
Greeks,  96 ;  invoked  as  a  God  by  the 
Egyptians,  90 ;  not  eaten  by  the  Pelu- 
sians,  96 ;  Peruvian  priests  abstained 
from  it  while  engaged  in  sacrifice,  95. 

Gods  believed  to  become  incarnate  in 
the  medicine  men,  59, — see  Lamas; 
children  in  the  Samoan  Islands  are 
called  the  "excrement  of  such  and 
such  a  god,"  59 ;  Bacchus  or  Dion}-- 
sius,  62 ;  Mithras,  62  ;  "  Bread  of  the 
Gods"  (Mexico),  90;  Egyptian  gods, 
94 ;  onions  and  garlic  adored  as  gods, 
94.  See  also  Mushrooms  and  Mistle- 
toe,  Dung-Gods,   Cloacina,  Crepitus. 

Gods,  heathen,  idea  of,  157. 

Golden  Bough,  The.  James  G.  Frazer, 
M.  A.,  London,  1890.    .See  Frazer. 

Gomez.    See  Nirang. 

Grace,  Herb  of,  Rue  so  called. 

Grand  Lama  of  Thibet,  his  excrements 
made  into  amulets,  4.3,  44,  45,  46.  47, 
48,  49,  50,  51,  52  ;  his  urine  mixed  in 
food,  44;  the  same  ideas  in  Ireland, 
67,  58,  60;  and  in  Uganda,  Africa, 
60 ;  the  excrement  of  the  Grand  Lama 
made  into  snuff,  214. 

Guerlichon.  Saint,  Phallic  statue  near 
Bruges,  430. 


Hair,  240 ;  in  medicine,  —  see  Thera- 
peutics, 348,  .345.  See  also  "Cures 
by  Transplantation,"  346,  412.  See 
Witchcraft. 


490 


INDEX. 


Hair,  urine  used  in  eradicating  dandruff 
from,  198,  l'J9,  280,  314;  excrement 
of  different  kinds  used  as  a  dye  for, 
199 ;  camel's  dung  and  urine  good 
for,  280 ;  bull's  urine  good  for,  280. 

Ha-o-kah,  tlie  anti-Natural  god  of  the 
Sioux,  106. 

Harvest  Games.    See  Games. 

Hascliish.    See  Intoxicants. 

'•  Healths  in  urine,"  229.  See  Flap- 
Dragons. 

Ilelmont,  Von.    SeeOritrika. 

Herb  of  Grace,  Rue  so-called.    See  Rue, 

224,  225. 

Holi,  iuili,  hulica,  festival  of,  432,  434. 
Holy  water,  51,60,61,  105,108,116,211, 

225,  228,  229,  247,  2G1,  264,  383,  388, 
394.  398,  399,  428,  431 ;  sweet-scented 
water  used  in  sacred  rites  by  Lamas, 
51 ;  the  urine  of  the  Hottentot  medicine 
men  was  looked  upon  as  hoi}'  water, 
60,  229;  the  water  of  the  mistletoe 
used  as,  105,  108.  See  also  "  Water 
of  Immortality."  Cow  urine  regarded 
as  holy  water  by  Parsees  and  Hindus, 
110;  holy  water  superseded  a  former 
use  of  urine,  211,  261  ;  urine  used  in- 
stead of,  in  "  Witches'  Mass,"  383, 
388,  394,  397,  398;  the  water  of  the 
river  Ganges  held  to  be  holy,  428 ; 
lingam, 304,  .^05, 431 ;  "yellow  water," 
431. 

Hom,  the  sacred  plant  of  the  Magi ;  its 
resemblance  to  mistletoe,  101. 

"  Hommes  habillis  en  Femme,"  22,  23. 

Horns,  as  symbols  of  power,  408;  in 
witchcnift,  245. 

Hospitality.  In  Siberia,  women  are  pre- 
sented to  distinguislied  guests  who 
must  drink  their  urine,  228,  316. 

Hugo,  Victor,  refers  to  the  ta.x  of  flatu. 
lence  imposed  upon  prostitutes  in 
France,  168. 

"  Hum,"  the  sacred  drink  of  the  Parsis, 
380. 

Hunting  and  fishing,  mistletoe  ensured 
success  in,  109 ;  sacrifices  offered  to 
the  god  of,  161 ;  bladders  worn  by  dis- 
tinguished Hottentot  hunters,  244. 


Idols,  354  ;  women  of  the,  406. 

"  Impenetrability  of  Weapons,"  219. 

Incantation.  See  under  Witchcraft; 
see  also  Singing,  Music. 

Incantations,  218. 

Industries,  177  to  195. 

Initiation,  189,  240,  243,  383,  384;  In 
dians  compelled  to  eat  cow-dung  be- 
fore, 114,  119;  tattooing  upon,  185; 
Parsis   drink   bull   urine,  238;    Hot- 


tentot young  men  emasculated  and 
sprinkled  with  urine  at  time  of,  238, 
239 ;  Eskimo  candidate  for  the  honor 
of  medicine  men,  had  to  be  accus- 
tomed to  the  smell  of  urine  from 
babyhood,  239;  initiation  of  witches, 
402.     See  also  Confirmation. 

Insanity.     See  Mania. 

Insults,  87,  114,  253,  254,  255,  256,  257, 
379;  ordure  and  urine  in,  87;  the 
Hebrews  revile  each  other's  temples, 
calling  them  "  Houses  of  Dung,"  114. 

Intoxicjints,  sacred  character  of,  75,  89, 
90,  91 ;  at  weddings,  229.  See  Mush- 
rooms, Mistletoe,  Haschish,  Wine, 
Urine. 

Intoxication,  sacred,  380. 

Ireland,  called  the  "  Urinal  of  the  Plan- 
ets," 269. 

Isaiah,  Hebrew  prophet,  supposed  to 
refer  to  the  mistletoe,  101  ;  had  at- 
tacks of  mania,  121 ;  compared  human 
justice  "  panno  menstruaiae,"  253. 


Jewelry,  excrement  as,  184. 
Jews'  Ears.     See  Mushrooms. 


Kadeshim,  406. 

Kashima,  206,  207,  434. 

Kempis,  Thomas  a,  compared  all  human 
joys  to  dung,  271. 

King's  Evil,  could  be  cured  by  the  touch 
of  the  king.  60,  61 ;  or  by  that  of  a 
menstruating  woman,  60,  61 :  the  first 
of  these  beliefs  is  evidently  a  "  sur- 
vival "  of  man  worship,  60,  61 ;  could 
be  cured  by  the  urine  of  a  male  child, 
300. 

Kingsley,  J.  W.,  M.D.,  his  views  on  Ur- 
orgies,  65,  70. 

Kissing.  See  under  Phallism,  103,  104, 
173,  222;  under  Mistletoe,  103,  104. 
As  a  religious  rite  in  the  Christian 
church,  104;  kissing  the  post  of  Bil- 
lingsgate, London,  173. 

"  Knife,  The,"  a  secret  order  of  the 
Zunis,  6 ;  "  Knife,  the  Winged,"  a  god 
of  the  Zunis  of  New  Mexico,  9. 

Kutka,  agod  of  the  Kamtchatkans,  falls 
in  love  with  his  own  excrement,  267. 


Lajarde,  his  definition  of  "  Cow's  Wa- 
ter," 113. 

Lamas,  42,  43.  44,  47,  48.  40,  50,  51.  52, 
53,  58,  59,  82,  118.  126;  among  the 
Irish,  68,  50,  82.  See  Grand  Lama  of 
Thibet,  Priests,  Buddhists. 


INDEX. 


491 


Lamas  of  Thibet,  358.  See  Bhikshunis, 
Budilhists. 

Latrines,  134-153. 

Loretto,  slirine  of,  tattooing  practised 
at,  \m. 

Love-riiilters.  223.  See  Philters,  Divi- 
nation, Courtship  and  Marriage. 

Lustral  Water,  240,  400. 

Lustration.     See  Aspersion,  Baptism. 


"  Mad  Potion,"  Wysoccan,  243. 

Magic,  mistletoe  believed  to  have  magi- 
cal powers,  100;  Osthanes,  the  Per- 
sian, the  first  writer  upon  magic,  ac- 
cording to  Pliny,  376.  Sec  under 
Eunuch,  Aphrodisiacs,  Witchcraft, 
Amulets  and  Talismans,  Charms,  In- 
cantations. 

Magical  Impenetrability.  See  under 
War  Customs. 

Mandrake,  876. 

Mandrake,  before  pulling  it  out  of  the 
ground,  it  was  anointed  with  the  urine 
of  a  woinan  and  the  catamenia  of  a 
virgin,  876. 

"  Mangeurs  de  Blanc."  287. 

Mania,  induced  by  drinking  the  water 
of  the  "  Borgie  well "  of  Glasgow,  76  ; 
induced  by  poisonous  mushrooms, 
79;  human  ordure  and  urine  a  cure 
for,  314,  339 ;  Ezekiel  and  Isaiah  had 
attacks  of,  121. 

Manicheans,  bathed  in  urine,  211 ;  sprin- 
kled the  Eucharistic  bread  with  se- 
men, 229. 

Man  worship,  59,  60,  61,  459,  460,  —  see 
Grand  Lama  of  Thibet ;  see  Gurus ; 
see  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  .36 ; 
see  Excrement,  Pedung ;  the  same 
ideas  in  Ireland,  60 ;  and  in  Uganda, 
Africa,  60 ;  the  existence  of  man  wor- 
ship in  Europe,  61;  connected  with 
the  belief  in  the  power  of  the  king's 
touch,  to  cure  the  King's  Evil,  61. 

Marriage.    See  Courtship  and  Marriage. 

Marrow,  human,  in  medicine,  see  Thera- 
peutics ;  in  witchcraft,  see  Witch- 
craft. 

Matthew,  Saint,  compares  all  human 
joys  to  dung,  271. 

Meconium,  —  see  Therapeutics  ;  a  cos- 
metic, see  Cosmetics. 

Medicine-men  of  the  Ove-hereros,  Africa 
urinate  on  the  sick  in  order  to  effect 
cures,  889. 

Menstruation.    See  Catamenia. 

"Merde  du  Diable,"  assafoetida  so 
called,  444. 

Merde,  Holy.     See  Excrement. 


Metals,  transmutation  of.  See  Potable 
Gold.  Human  urine  used  in  effecting, 
1»3. 

Milk  vessels  in  Africa,  washed  out  with 
human  urine,  199;  a  good  flow  of 
milk  assured  by  washing  the  cow'a 
udders  with  urine,  211;  a  good  flow 
of  n)ilk  assured  in  a  woman's  breasts, 
by  washing  them  with  urine,  211;  in 
medicine,  —  see  Therapeutics ;  sprink- 
led by  nursing  women  upon  a  fire, 
891 ;  milk  of  cow  sprinkled  upon  the 
lingam,  428,  431. 

Mistletoe,  74,  75,  92,  99,  100,  101,  102, 
103, 104, 105, 106, 154,301;  spoken  of  in 
Cingalese  Myths,  92,  99,  100,  101, 102, 
108,  104,  105,  106;  why  venerated  by 
the  Druids,  99,  100,  101;  adored  by 
the  Massagetae  and  the  Persians,  101, 

102  ;  and  by  the  ancients  generally, 
100;  a  cure  for  sterility,  101,  102; 
Virgil  called  it  "  Branch  of  Gold," 
101 ;  Charon  dumb  in  the  presence  of, 
101 ;  a  Phallic  symbol,  101,  102  ;  a 
berry   plucked    off   with  every   kiss, 

103  ;  kissing  under,  103 ;  dedicated  to 
Mylitta,  103;  mistletoe  of  the  oak, 
pear,  and  hazel,  will  produce  abor- 
tion, 104 ;  alleged  to  have  been  held 
sacred  by  the  mound-builders,  107. 

Mistletoe,  when  found  growing  on  the 
oak,  represented  man,  110. 

Mock  baptism,  232. 

Mortuary  ceremonies,  150,  152, 162,  261, 
262,  263;  purification  in,  150;  the  va- 
gina, urethra,  nostrils,  rectum,  etc.,  of 
corpses  closed  by  the  Pelew  island- 
ers, 102 ;  defilement  from  touching  a 
corpse,  261. 

Mound-builders,  alleged  to  have  held 
mistletoe  sacred,  76. 

Mourning,  262;  urine  and  ordure  as 
signs  of,  262;  Australians  in  mourn- 
ing rub  themselves  with  the  moisture 
from  the  corpse,  261.  See  Mortuary 
Ceremonies. 

Muhongo,  an  African  boy  from  Angola. 

Mnk-a-Moor.     See  ^Mushrooms. 

Mummy,  in  medicine,  see  Therapeu- 
tics ;  in  love-philters,  see  Philters. 

Museum,  National.  See  National  Mu- 
seum. 

Museum,  Washington,  DC,  364. 

Mushrooms,  poisonous  mushrooms  used 
in  Ur-orgies,  65  to  91 ;  obeyed  as  a 
god  by  the  Siberians,  70,  75 :  at  the 
"  Holy  Well  of  the  Borgie,"  Glasgow, 
76 ;  adored  as  a  god  by  the  Africans, 
79  ;  detested  by  Hindus,  92 

Musk,  odor  of.  restored  by  hanging  it  in 
a  privy,  181 ;  in  medicine,  —  see  Ther- 


492 


INDEX. 


apeutics ;  human  excrement  was  called 

musk  by  Paracelsus,  341. 
Mylitta,  liabylonian  goddess  of  venery  ; 

prostitution  in  her  temples,  101,  103, 

404.  405,  40tj,  407,  40«. 
Myths,  151,  226,  'ZoO,  206-271. 


Nails,  in  medicine,  —  see  Therapeutics  ; 
see  Witchcraft ;  Cures  by  Trans- 
plantation. 

Names,  59,  123,  124,  442;  in  Samoa, 
children  are  named  the  "excrement 
of  Tongo,"  or  some  other  god,  69  ;  in 
India,  and  among  the  Parsis,  children 
are  sprinkled  with  cow  urine,  when 
named,  153 ;  the  name  of  the  victim 
had  to  be  invoked  in  a  substitutive 
sacrifice,  124 ;  the  name  of  the  patient 
had  to  be  mentioned  when  medicinal 
herbs  were  gathered,  442. 

Nanacatl,  the  poisonous  nmshroom  used 
in  Mexican  orgies,  89,  90. 

Necklace  of  human  fingers,  deposited  by 
the  author  in  the  National  Museum, 
Washington,  D.  C,  364. 

Necromancy.    See  Witchcraft. 

"  Nehue-cue,"  a  secret  order  of  the 
Zunis,  7,  8,  9. 

Nirang,  8,  122,  301.  See  Urine,  Gomez, 
Cow  Urine,  Lustrations. 


Omens.    See  Divination. 

Ordeals  and  Punishments,  249,  250,  251, 
252.  253. 

Ordure.     See  Excrement. 

Origen,  108. 

Osthanes,  the  magician,  accompanied 
the  army  of  Xerxes  into  Greece,  and, 
according  to  Pliny,  was  the  first  writer 
on  magic ;  his  views  on  the  magical 
effects  of  Imman  urine,  376. 

Ove-hereros,  of  Africa,  their  medicine- 
men urinate  on  the  sick  in  order  to 
effect  cures,  339. 


Parsis,  anoint  themselves  with  the  or- 
dure and  urine  of  the  cow,  7,  8,  48 ; 
drink  cow  urine,  7,  8,  48,  113, 122,  211 ; 
asperse  themselves  with  cow  urine, 
113,  122;  use  of  bull  urine  at  time  of 
confirmation,  238. 

Parturition,  mushrooms  given  to  bring 
about  pregnancy,  83 ;  the  Hmdu 
women's  method  for  aiding  preg- 
nancy, 93 ;  mistletoe  given  to  aid 
childbirth,  100;  and  to  cure  sterility. 
100, 101,  102,  103,  104;  human  ordure 
and  urine  drunk  to  remedy  sterility, 


126;  Apache-Yuma  women  tattoo 
themselves  when  anxious  to  become 
mothers,  186 ;  ceremonies  connected 
with  the  first  pregnancy  of  Guinea 
negresses,  210,  211;  the  breasts  of 
Scotch  women  bathed  with  hmuan 
urine,  210,  211;  the  breasts  of  the 
women  of  the  French  peasantrybathed 
with  human  urine,  210,  211 ;  a  pessary 
of  meconium  to  cure  sterility,  233; 
English  women  drank  the  urine  of 
husband  to  aid  them  in  labor,  234; 
idem,  France,  235;  Germany,  etc. 
305 ;  teeth  worn  as  amulets  during 
pregnancy,  364  ;  in  the  KalaVala,  it 
is  narrated  that  a  maiden  became 
pregnant  after  swallowing  a  berry, 
108. 

Paschasius,  a  Roman  judge,  sprinkled 
Saint  Lucy  with  urine  because  she 
was  a  witch,  394. 

Pastimes.    See  Games. 

Paul,  the  apostle,  compares  all  human 
joys  to  dung,  271. 

Pelusium,  onion  was  worshipped  as  a 
god  in,  96;  the  people  did  not  eat 
onions  or  garlic,  96  ;  tiiey  adored  flat- 
ulence, 155. 

Penance.   See  Ordeals  and  Punishments. 

Perspiration,  a  component  of  love- 
pliilters  ;  in  medicine,  290,  412.  See 
Therapeutics,  Cures  by  Transplant- 
ation. 

Phallic  dances,  the  Phallus  fungus,  79; 
a  Phallic  importance  seems  to  have 
attached  to  the  onion,  96 ;  likewise 
to  the  mistletoe,  103 ;  "  Jack  of  Hil- 
ton," apparently  a  Phallic  idol,  165, 
160 ;  the  "  Mannikin  "  of  Brussels,  an- 
other, 165,  166 ;  the  Phallic  game  of 
"  Cockle  Bread,"  221, 222.  See  under 
Lin  gam. 

Phallism,  7,  12,  79,  103,  117,  165,  166, 
221,  222,  201,  428,  429,  430,  431. 

Pharmacy,  among  savages,  is  always  a 
matter  of  religion,  277.  See  Thera- 
peutics. 

Philosopher's  stone,  226,  304,  305.  See 
Transmutation  of  Metals ;  see  "  Pota- 
ble Gold." 

Philters,  ordure  and  urine  in,  216,  217, 
218,  223;  death  the  punishment  for 
making  them  of  ordure  and  urine,  210  ; 
philters  were  also  made  of  perspira- 
tion, semen,  and  catamenia,  210,  217, 
218,  219;  made  by  transfusion  of 
blood,  219;  anti-philters,  224,  225, 
226. 

Phosphorus.    See  Industries. 

"  Piss,  the  more  you,  the  less  you  cry," 
275. 


INDEX. 


493 


Placenta,  see  After-Birth ;  in  philters, 
see  Philters. 

Plaster,  see  Industries. 

Pledges,  228,  240,  427,  457,  458 ;  human 
urine  drunk  as  a  pledge  of  friend- 
ship in  Siberia,  228.  See  under  Blood 
Covenant,  240;  see  under  Human 
Sacriflce,  457. 

Poison,  58,  234,  —  see  Mushrooms;  see 
"  Imbando ; "  human  ordure  an  anti- 
dote for,  311,  312,  313,  322,  323;  hu- 
man ordure  also  used  by  the  Japanese 
as  a  cure  for  the  wounds  of  poisonous 
weapons,  311,  312;  also  for  the  same 
purpose  by  other  nations,  312,  313  ; 
the  patient's  own  urine  an  antidote 
for,  320,  322 ;  the  bites  of  venomous 
animals,  mad  dogs,  and  snakes,  cured 
by  human  ordure,  312 ;  and  by  urine, 
414 ;  but  there  was  no  "  Cure  by 
Transplantation  "  for  poison,  412. 

"Potable  Gold,"  303,  305.  See  Trans- 
mutation of  Metals,  188. 

Pregnancy.     See  Parturition. 

Presents,  those  received  from  the  devil 
alwa^'s  turned  into  filth,  401. 

Priests,  10,  11,  12,  15,  19,  20,  25,  30,  31, 
32,  33,  34,  35,  36,  37,  38,  60,  67,  68,  69, 
70,  71,  72,  89,  109,  110,  115,  116,  128, 
129, 135, 156 ;  the  water  in  which  they 
defecated,  drunk  by  pious  Irish  kings, 
58 ;  the  Chinese  priests  have  mush- 
rooms as  part  of  their  diet,  81  ;  the 
chief  priest  of  the  Romans  was  called 
the  greatest  bridge  builder,  169,  170, 
171;  priests  tattooed  the  young  men, 
185,  186 ;  the  priests  of  Jupiter  Ara- 
mon  made  sal  ammoniac,  195;  Hot- 
tentot priests  sprinkled  their  urine 
upon  wedding  guests,  young  warriors, 
and  mourners,  229;  priests  were  the 
earthly  representatives  of  their  dei- 
ties, 322,  362 ;  the  skulls  of  Buddhist 
priests  used  in  divination,  359. 

Prostitution,  sacred  prostitution,  101, 
103,  168,  404,  405,  406,  407 ;  a  toll  of 
flatulence  exacted  of  prostitutes  cross- 
ing bridge  of  Montluc  in  France,  168, 
169 ;  in  the  South  Sea  Islands,  135 ; 
in  Paris,  337  ;  prostitutes  in  Rome 
offered  expiations  of  catamenia,  350  ; 
the  prostitutes  of  Amsterdam  believed 
that  horse-dung  brought  them  luck, 
405  ;  the  prostitutes  of  Babylon,  404, 
405,  406 ;  of  Patagonia,  407. 

Purification.  See  Lustration,  Mortuary 
Ceremonies,  Aspersion,  Holy  Water. 

Queen  of  Madagascar  asperses  her  sub- 
jects with  the  water  in  which  she  lias 
bathed,  60. 


Rain,  the  urine  of  the'gods,  270. 

Rainbow,  180,  267,  442 ;  regarded  gener- 
ally by  the  savage  mind  as  a  panacea, 
442,  and  by  the  Africans  as  a  serpent, 
267. 

Rattles,  6,  437  ;  sometimes  consulted  as 
oracles,  437 ;  and  adored  as  a  god, 
437. 

Haven  talked  to  its  own  excrement,  270. 

Reverence,  Sir  Reveience,  170,  247,  253, 

Ring,  urination  through  the  wedding 
ring  baffled  witchcraft,  230, 231 ;  rings 
were  formerly  exchanged  by  bridal 
couple,  230.  See  Amulets  and  Talis- 
mans, Courtship  and  Marriage,  Circle. 

Ritual  of  the  Feast  of  the  Ass,  15 ;  of 
tlie  Lamas  for  making  man!  pills,  49, 
60,  51 ;  of  the  Moslems  for  urinating, 
141 ;  of  bridge-builders  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  169,  170,171;  of  Bel-Phe- 
gor,  173,  —  see  under  Bel-Pliegor  ;  see 
also  Kissing  the  Post  of  BiUingsgnte; 
of  the  Manicheans  and  Albigenses, 
220. 

Ritualistic  cannibalism,  64,  155 ;  among 
Hebrews,  155. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  councils  inter- 
dict the  use  of  ordure  and  urine  in 
witchciaft,  216,  394;  also  interdict 
love-philters,  220,  221;  used  rue  in 
exorcism,  225. 

Rosemary,  399. 

Rue,  225 ;  called  "  Herb  of  Grace,"  225  ; 
an  urino-genital  irritant,  225 ;  used 
to  asperse  congregations,  225,  245; 
died  if  touched  by  a  menstruating 
woman,  350 ;  used  in  the  manufacture 
of  anti-philters,  225.  See  Tree  and 
Plant  Worship. 


Sacred  intoxication,  381. 

Sacrifice,  —  see  also  Oblations,  Votive 
Offerings,  see  Human  Sacrifice,  see 
Substitutive  Sacrifice,  Abstinence ; 
Chinese  priests  abstain  from  garlic 
while  offering  sacrifice,  95 ;  garlic  was 
offered  in  sacrifice  by  Greeks  and 
Egyptians,  95;  cow  dung  and  urine 
in  sacrifice  in  India  and  Thibet,  112, 
113,  114,  115,  116,  117;  ashes  of  cow 
dung  used  by  the  Hindus  and  He- 
brews, 113,  114;  of  ordure  placed  on 
the  altars  of  tiie  Assyrian  Venus,  129, 
130 ;  ditto  of  Mexican  dung  gods,  131 ; 
of  ordure  and  urine  on  the  altars  of 
Bel-Phegor,  132,  133;  sacrifices  of 
ear-wax,  saliva,  mucus,  tears,  132, 133. 
See  Ceremonial  Observances. 

Sagard,  Pere,  234  ;  Histoire  du  Canada, 
edition  of  Paris,  1885. 


494 


INDEX, 


Sakya-Muni.     See  Buddha. 

Salagram.     See  Liiigain. 

Sal  Ammoniac.     See  Industries. 

Saliva,  202,417,  —  see  also  Spitting;  as 
an  oblation  to  Bel-peor,  lo2,  133 ;  in 
medicine,  —  see  Tlierapeutics  ;  see 
"Cures  by  Transplantation." 

Salt,  urine  employed  as  a  substitute  for, 
118,  199,  204;  and  in  the  manufacture 
of,  193 ;  salt  and  water  as  a  substitute 
for  urine,  211 ;  in  witchcraft,  879,  403, 
—  see  Witchcraft ;  not  generally  eaten 
by  witches,  402  ;  used  by  the  Irish  to 
drive  away  witches,  404. 

Saltpetre.     See  Industries. 

Samoan  Islands,  filthy  names  given 
to  children,  as  a  matter  of  religion, 
59. 

Santa  Claus,  his  derivation  from  polar 
countries,  209. 

Saturnalia.     See  Bacchanalia,  Huli. 

Scatomancy,  or  Divination  by  Excre- 
ment.    See  Divination. 

Scatophagi  (excrement  eaters).  See 
Excrement. 

Scybalaophagi.  See  Scatophagi,  Ex- 
crement. 

Sectarial  Marks  of  the  Hindus.  See 
Tattooing. 

Secundines,  an  anti-philter,  226-235. 
See  After-Birth. 

Semen  in  love-philters,  217,  219,  — 
see  Philters;  in  medicine,  see  Ther- 
apeutics ;  in  witchcraft,  see  Witch- 
craft. 

Semen  lini,  297, 

Shamrock.     See  Druids. 

Shampooing.     See  Hair. 

Signatures,  Doctrine  of.  See  Cures  by 
Transplantation. 

Silence,  in  ceremonial  observances,  414, 
442;  in  gathering  medicinal  plants, 
442. 

Skin,  292, 

Skin,  Human,  in  Therapeutics.  See 
Therapeutics. 

Skull,  human,  in  medicine.  —  see  Thera- 
peutics ;  a  remedy  for  witchcraft ; 
moss  growing  on  skull;  in  medicine; 
in  the  religious  ceremonies  of  the 
Lamas,  359. 

Smoking,  buffalo  dung  smoked,  182, 
214  ;  hen  dung  smoked  in  adulterated 
opium,  182;  the  excrement  of  the 
Grand  Lama  used  as  snuff,  214;  pig 
dung  used  as  snuff,  214;  the  people 
of  Achaia  smoked  cow  dung,  214. 
See  also  Incense. 

Smudges.     See  also  Fuel. 

Snake,  33;  as  food,  33;  snake  dances, 
27. 


Snuff,  the  excrement  of  the  Grand  Lama 
made  into  snutl',  214;  pig  dung  used 
as,  214,  329;  powdered  skulls  used  as, 
252;  moss  growing  on  skull  used  as, 
360.  See  Smoking,  Tobacco,  Excre- 
ment, Grand  Lama. 

Soap,  antedated  by  urine,  140,  202,  203. 

Sorcery.   See  Witchcraft,  Enchantment. 

Spatalomancy, divination  by  Skin,  Bones 
and  Excrement.  See  Divination,  Scat- 
omancy. 

Spells.     See  Magic. 

Stercoraceous  chair  of  the  Popes,  213. 

"  Stercoranistes,"  or  "  Stercorarians,"  a 
sect  charged  with  believing  that  the 
sacred  elements  in  tlie  Eucliarist  were 
subject  to  digestion,  54,  65,  56. 

"  Stercoraire,  —  Chaise  des  Papes,"  21.3. 

Stercus,  Sterculius,  Stercutus,  Sterqui- 
linus.     See  Dung  Gods. 

Sterility,  2-J6,  286. 

Sterilitj'.     See  Therapeutics. 

Substitutive  sacrifice,  Ezekiel  substi- 
tutes cow  dung  for  human  ordure  in 
his  food,  119,  120,  121;  the  cow,  a 
substitute  for  human  sacrifice,  122  ; 
ox,  buffalo,  and  goat,  ditto,  123,  124, 
125,  126 ;  cock  and  chamois,  ditto, 
171 ;  wolf  or  goat,  ditto,  171 ;  chicken, 
ditto,  252.     See  Survivals. 

Sulphur,  "  Occidental  Sulphur,"  a  name 
for  human  ordure  when  administered 
in  medicine,  424. 

Sun  Dance,  27. 

Superstition.     See  Survivals,  Eeligion, 

Survivals,  burlesque  survivals,  .'306,  307, 
308,  432,  433,  434,  435,  436,  437.  See 
Substitutive  Sacrifice. 

Sweat-Bath.  See  Purification,  Lustra- 
tion. 

Sympathetic  Cures.  See  Cures  by 
Transplantation,  Color  Symbolism, 
Doctrine  of  Signatures. 

Sympathies,  the  Doctrine  of.  See  Color 
Sj'mbolism,  Cures  by  Transplanta- 
tion ;  Similia  Siniilibus. 

"  Szombatiaks,"  of  Transylvania,  18, 19. 


Tallow,  Human,  in  medicine.  See 
Therapeutics. 

Tanning.     See  Industries. 

Tartar, the  impurities  from  human  teeth 
used  in  medicine.     See  Tlierapeutics 

Tattooing,  184,  185,  1S6,  187,  188,  189, 
190;  in  Australia,  187  ;  among  Amer 
ican  Indians,  185,  186 ;  among  Bur 
mese,  186;  the  sectarial  marks  of  the 
Hindus,  186;  "  Tattooed  Face,"  a  god 
of  the  Mandans,  186;  tattooing  of 
captives,  186. 


INDEX. 


495 


Teeth,  —  see  Dentrlfice;  in  medicine, 
255,  —  see  Therapeutics  ;  to  frustrate 
witchcraft,  ^81,  —  see  VVitclicraf t. 

Tenacity  of  Ceremonial.    See  Survivals. 

Tenures  of  land,  16o,  166,  107 ;  obscene 
tenures  in  England,  165,  166,  167; 
"Ancient"  Blount,  165,  166,  167;  of 
land  by  flatulence,  in  England,  165, 
1G6,  167 ;  tlie  antiquity  of  these  ten- 
ures, 167. 

Testes,  testicles,  230 ;  of  bridegroom 
anointed  with  "  Zibethum,"  230.  See, 
also,  Eunuchs. 

Testicles,  225,  230;  of  goat  and  fox, 
used  as  aphrodisiacs,  225;  of  bride- 
groom anointed,  280. 

Therapeutic  Hagiology,  157,  158,  159, 
160,  423,  445,  446. 

Therapeutics,  277  to  343  inclusive;  314 
to  365  inclusive.,  —  see  Parturition, 
Courtship  and  Marriage,  Sterility, 
Virility,  Ligatures,  Amulets  and 
Talismans,  Cosmetics,  Witchcraft, 
etc. ;  the  Heathen  theory  of  thera- 
peutics, 423. 

Thibetan  doctors  churn  the  patient's 
urine  before  making  a  diagnosis  of 
disease,  273. 

Toasts,  urine  drunk  in,  220,  238. 

Tobacco,  cured  by  hanging  in  privies, 
181 ;  mixed  with  buffalo  or  rhinoceros 
dung  for  smoking,  214;  used  by  the 
Irish  to  drive  away  fairies,  403. 

Tolls,  on  bridges,  roads,  etc.,  166,  167, 
168,  169;  of  flatulence,  exacted  from 
prostitutes,  166,  167,  168,  169. 

"  Torngarsuk,"  an  Eskimo  god,  could 
be  killed  by  flatulence,  157. 

Totem.     See' Clan,  Tattooing. 

"  Transplantation,  Cures  by,"  378  to 
427  inclusive,  439,  441,  442,  443,  444. 
457,  458,  460.  See  Animal  Worship, 
Tree  and  Plant  Worship. 

Tree  and  plant  worship,  427,  —  see 
Rue ;  Mistletoe,  56,  57  ;  Aconite,  150, 
Dandelion,  150;  Mushroom,  56.  See 
Oak. 


Urinals.     See  Latrines. 

Urination  in  bed,  charm  to  prevent,  375. 

Urination,  posture  in,  141,  151,  152; 
Maliometans,  141 ;  Apaches,  men  and 
women,  151:  ancient  Irish,  152;  Ital- 
ians, 152;  Chinese,  152;  Greeks,  Ro- 
mans, etc.,  375.  See  Ceremonial  Ob- 
servances. 

Urine,  236,  239,  240,  241;  used  as  a 
stimulant  in  South  America,  Malacca, 
Bavaria,  and  Central  Africa,  332,  333; 
given  to  new-born  babes  in  England, 


239,  240,   241;    urine   drinking,   239, 

240,  241 ;  poured  upon  the  head  of  a 
woman  in  labor  by  Eskimo,  236. 

Urine  of  medicine  men  sprinkled  upon 
Hottentot  bride  and  groom,  59,  228, 
229 ;  the  Queen  of  Madagascar  sprin- 
kled her  subjects  with  the  water  in 
which  she  had  bathed,  60;  a  simi- 
lar custom  at  Russian  weddings,  231 ; 
a  remedy  for  witchcraft,  216,  —  see 
Witchcraft;  in  conjunction  with  the 
lizard  is  an  antiplirodisiac,  224,  —  see 
Ligature,  Virility,  Wedding,  Wedding 
Ring  ;  the  Eskimo  boy  who  aspires  to 
become  a  medicine  man  must  accus- 
tom himself  to  the  smell  of  urine  from 
boyhood,  239  ;  urine  in  sacrifice,  —  see 
Sacrifice,  Lustration,  Aspersions,  Ob- 
lations, War  Customs,  Divination ; 
urine  in  cosmetics,  —  see  Cosmetics; 
urine  in  witchcraft,  —  see  Witchcraft, 
Initiation ;  urine  in  bread-making,  32, 
39 ;  urine  in  industries,  —  see  Agricul- 
ture, Industries,  Tanning,  Bleaching, 
Dyeing;  urine  as  a  dentrifrice,  203,204, 
205 ;  urine  in  medicine, — see  Therapeu- 
tics ;  in  love-philters,  —  see  Love-Phil- 
ters ;  "urine-casting,"  396  ;  urine  as  a 
beverage,  6,  7,  8,  9,  22,  30.  36,  38,  39, 
40,  58,  65,  66,  67,  68,  69,  70,  71,  72,  73, 
74,  75,  86,  87 ;  probably  used  as  such 
by  the  fairies,  86,  87,  88,  112,  113,  114, 
115,  116,  117,  118;  also  by  Hindu  and 
Hebrew  fanatics,  119,  120,  126;  was 
drunk  to  ease  the  pains  of  pregnancy, 
233 ;  English  women  in  labor  drank 
their  husband's  urine,  234  ;  this  seems 
to  have  been  a  very  ancient  practice, 
235,  236 ;  urine  in  such  cases  among 
the  Eskimo,  236;  Parsis  drink  bull's 
urine  at  Confirmation,  238;  children, 
at  birth,  forced  to  drink  urine,  239, 
240;  water  in  which  babe  has  just 
been  bathed  drunk  by  Indians  of 
California,  midwives.  239  ;  the  Ponca 
Indians  made  an  Omaha  calumet- 
bearer  drink  urine,  257 ;  urine  in 
"cures  by  transplantation,"  —  see 
"Cures  by  Transplantation,"  Lin- 
gam  ;  the  urine  of  the  Grand  Lama  of 
Thibet  mixed  in  food,  44.  See  In- 
sults, Myths,  Tolls.  Urine  formerly 
thrown  out  of  windows  in  Paris.  Bor- 
deaux, Madrid,  Edinburgh,  and  many 
other  cities  of  Europe,  136,  137,  138; 
urine  dances,  6.  7,  8,  9,  22,  30,  65,  67, 
68,  69,  70,  71,  72,  73,  74,  75,  76,  87. 
See  also  under  Feast  of  Fools. 

Urinoscopy.  272.  273,  274,  331,  385,  386, 
415 ;  complicrated  with  divination, 
{q.v.)  272,  273,  274;  seems  to  have  pre- 


496 


INDEX. 


vailed  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  272, 
273,  274;  among  the  Konians,  272, 
278;  Arabians,  272,273;  in  England, 
272,  273,  274 ;  in  Germany,  272,  273, 
274 ;  France,  272,  273,  274;  among  the 
Greeks,  272,  273,  274. 


Virgil  calls  mistletoe  the  "  Branch  of 

Gold,"  72,  78. 
Vitriol.     See  Cures  by  Transplantation. 
Vodka.     See  Intoxicants. 
Voudooism.     See  Witchcraft. 


Waltz,  401. 

War  customs,  237,  242,  243, 256  ;  captive 
girls  tattooed  by  tlie  Mojaves,  130; 
young  Hottentot  warriors  emascu- 
lated, 238;  human  ordure  an  antidote 
for  poisoned  weapons,  312,  323 ;  the 
custom  of  drinking  from  human 
skulls,  359.     See  Sacrifice. 

"  Water,  Alchymical,"  made  of  urine, 
183. 

"  Water,  Bitter,"  of  the  Hebrews,  255. 

"  Water,  Celestial,"  394,  898. 

"  Water,  Fore-spoken,"  398,  399. 

"  Water,  Lustral,"  2-JO,  400. 

"  Water  of  All  Flowers,"  366,  367.  See 
Millefleurs. 

"  W^ater  of  Dung,"  199.  See  Excre- 
ment. 

"  Water  of  Juniper,"  398,  399. 

"  Water  of  Immortality,"  made  of  mis- 
tletoe, 108. 

Water  worship,  —  see  Holy  Water,  Lus- 
tration ;  water  used  ceremonially  by 
Moslems  for  ablutions  after  evacua- 
tion, 141,  142,  148;  by  the  Romans, 
—  see  Latrines  ;  negresses  of  Guinea, 
pregnant  for  the  first  time,  must  bathe 
in  the  sea,  210,  211  ;  water  in  which  a 
baby  had  been  bathed  for  the  first 
time,  was  drunk  by  the  California  In- 
dian midwives,  2.39 ;  "  yellow  water  " 
of  the  Feast  of  Holica,  432,  433,  434. 
See  also  Religion. 


Weaning  of  children  in  Guinea,  211, 
2;i6. 

Weddings,  —  see  Courtship  and  Mar- 
riage, 48 ;  Ur-orgies  at  Korak  wed- 
dings, 65,  66,  67  ;  urine  drunk  at  the 
weddings  of  the  Tchuktchi,  in  Sibe- 
ria, 228  ;  urine  of  the  bride  sprinkled 
upon  guests  at  Moorish  weddings, 
228 ;  water  in  which  the  Russian 
bride  has  bathed,  ditto,  231 ;  wine 
drunk  at  weddings  may  have  super- 
seded urine  of  tiie  bride,  in  England, 
Ireland,  etc.,  228 ;  wine  glasses  broken 
at  Jewish  weddings,  228 ;  the  urine  of 
the  medicine  men  was  sprinkled  upon 
the  wedded  couple  among  Hottentots, 

228,  229 ;  urination  tiirough  the  wed- 
ding ring  baffled  witches,  230,  231. 

Wells,  Holy.     See  Water  Worship. 

Whale  dung,  amber  believed  to  be,  271  ; 
ambergris,  ditto,  271. 

Wine,  that  used  by  fairies  seems  to 
have  been  urine,  87  ;  possibly  super- 
seded urine  at  weddings,  229;  wine- 
glasses broken  at  Hebrew  we(^dings, 

229,  230 ;  in  witchcraft,  398 ;  in  "  cures 
by  transplantation,"  —  see  Cures  by 
Transplantation  ;  see  under  Lingam, 
429,430,   481;  "  Priapic  Wine,"  429. 

Witchcraft,  146,  200,  373  to  434  inclu- 
sive. Lapland  witches  used  poisonous 
fungi,  81,  86,  —  see  Fairies,  "Fairy 
Butter  ;  "  garlic  used  by  the  Scandi- 
navians to  frustrate  witches,  95  ;  and 
also  by  the  Irish,  95 ;  mistletoe  used 
for  the  same  purpose,  107, 108 ;  witches 
could  not  hurt  those  who  wore  mistle- 
toe or  carried  knives  with  handles 
made  of  it,  108,  109 ;  sacred  powder 
frustrates  witchcraft,  116;  witchcraft 
in  connection  with  the  building  of 
the  bridge  of  Respoden,  116;  Laps 
believe  in  the  potency  of  human  or- 
dure and  urine  in,  184.  See  Cures 
by  Transplantation,  Concluding  Re- 
marks, Amulets  and  Talismans. 

Wysoccan,"  the  "  Mad  Potion,"  243. 


Zoolatry.     See  Animal  Worship. 


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